Police Activity Newsletter - Issue 28

POLICE, CRIME & ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR UPDATE 23 JUNE - 6 JULY 2021

CRIME OVERVIEW Crime numbers have dropped to 223 in the last 2 weeks, a reduction of almost 12% since the last Newsletter. Violence against the person and theft offences are still the most reported. Operational Support Teams in the city centre have succeeded in reducing robbery offences by focussing on disrupting criminal activity via Operation Remedy and this has resulted in a 40% reduction from 10 to 6. This Operation will continue in the coming weeks.

157 reports of Anti-Social

Behaviour, mainly during the hours of 21.00 and 24.00 are spread out across the whole area, however Park Street and College Green continue to report slightly higher levels of incidences. Overall, the

NEW LEADERSHIP - BUSINESS CRIME FORUM The Business Crime Forum moves forward with new leadership.

This week, the latest Business Crime Forum was held for the Force with Paul Butler from the PCC office chairing the meeting.

City Centre Chief Inspector Rob Cheeseman is now the Business Crime Lead for the force.

Important issues raised included poor response from police to retail crime, lack of police visibility during our high demand period and the need for Data Sharing to be agreed between the police and Business Crime Partnerships to enable better

crime prevention, detection and harm reduction for the future.

The key actions from the meeting were to deliver a Business Crime Strategy, to implement data sharing on crime and ASB by September and to improve police communication with Business Crime Partnerships. This is an exciting time for Business Crime with new leads and enthusiasm to drive work streams forward. You can be involved by raising issues, concerns, or points of note to your BID or BCRP to influence change.

crime and ASB levels are still considerably less than at this time last year.

ACID GRAFFITI Last weekend, a small number of city centre commercial properties were tagged by etching graffiti.

Etching graffiti is relatively rare within the city, will usually be to glass, but can be used on metal.

The tagger will use a makeshift brush made from a bingo dabber or shoe polish brush which they fill with a mix of hydrofluoric acid and other liquids. The resulting damage cannot be washed off as it etches the glass. It can be removed

by polishing but this is an expensive and timely repair.

As with most graffiti it is often committed at night to properties not protected by external CCTV making detection difficult.

Should your property have been damaged, please report to the police via the online reporting system or call 101. If you have any information to identify offenders, please email police@citycentrebid.co.uk . https:// www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/

JOINT RETAIL SECURITY MEETING An update from PCSO 8291 Brenden Laben from the Broadmead Neighbourhood Team.

This month, we will see the start of a new collaborative approach between Broadmead BID and City Centre BID with the combining of the monthly retail security meetings.

intellegence relating to retail security.

Traditionally, the meetings were held in person at Cabot circus, but due to Covid we have had to adapt and move the meetings online. The hope is to go back to meetings in person which will be rotated between the 2 BID areas to enable as many stores as These are an opportunity for police, possible to attend. security, retail managers and BID businesses to come together to share They are held on the first Thursday and discuss information, banned of every month at 09.15 via Zoom. offenders, prolific shoplifters, I look forward to meeting the new emerging trends and any other attendees and helping you to manage

Jack the ranger supporting retailers

KNIFE CRIME There has been a national increase in knife and other weaponrelated crime with limited understanding around the reasons for this trend. Furthermore, data suggests that young persons are disproportionately affected by such weapon-related crime and this has led to growing numbers of young people being hospitalised.

During the early evening of 29th June, during daylight hours, there was a stabbing incident outside

Foot Asylum at Cabot Circus.

Following an altercation between two groups of young males, the victim received a cut to the hand from another male who then fled the scene on foot. Police attended promptly and the victim received medical treatment in hospital for his wound which was not deemed to be life threatening.Fortunately, the incident was captured on CCTV due to the diligence of operators and a number of

witnesses have also come forward to assist police.

At this early stage in the investigation, enquiries are still ongoing. Police are still appealing for further information to assist with the investigation. If you can help with their enquiries please call 101 or contact crimestoppers.