POLICE, CRIME AND ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR UPDATE 10-23 November 2021
CRIME STATS There have been 323 crimes recorded in the last 14 day period which is a decrease on the 377 crimes reported in the last period. Violence against the person offences recorded have reduced by 10 and theft has reduced by around 20% since last week. Top crime locations are Cannons Road and Park Street however this is due to crimes recorded during the night time economy.
One young female has been attributed to 7 crimes across Broadmead. We are working closely with our ASB team and partners to address her behaviour long term. There have been 139 ASB incidents recorded which is a slight reduction since the last report. Crime levels are still seeing a 7.9% increase over the last 12 months but ASB is currently down 8.7% over the same period.
OPERATION SCEPTRE During a week of action in November, Avon and Somerset police, used a series of tactics and intense activities to tackle knife related crime. The objective of Operation Sceptre, a national initiative, was to reduce the number of people carrying knives and this was achieved through a wide variety
of targeted police educational activities.
operations
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Starting on 13th November, over 80 retail businesses, many in Bristol, were visited during a covert operation. Over 20 were found to sell knives to underage youths resulting in warnings being issued.
In other areas, following intelligence led Policing various targeted patrols took place and a number of persons were stop searched for weapons. Schools and various community groups took place in Blunt Truth educational workshops. Elsewhere, police worked with partners in the Violence Reduction units (VRUs) where many young persons were engaged with a bid to reduce them
from later becoming involved in knife crime. Knife surrender bins in other locations led to other weapons being handed in as part of a knife amnesty. Importantly, various knife sweeps took place across the city in places where intelligence suggested weapons would be hidden and stored including Castle Park, Broad Quay and St James’s Park where at least 7x weapons were recovered in the city centre alone.
ELECTRIC POLICE CARS HAVE ARRIVED IN BRISTOL Over the past few months I, along with our fleet services, have been working hard to deliver a fleet of Electric Police Vehicles for the City Centre Police Teams. Our aim is to deliver policing with consideration to the environment and recognise the impact of our vehicle use. With this in mind we have spent a lot of time developing the Livery which allows it to be recognised as a police vehicle but also an electric car. I am pleased to update you that this week we have received four electric vehicles. Two marked vehicles have been allocated to the beat teams to be used for high visibility city patrols, one marked vehicle has been allocated to the Bristol University Police officer, and a fourth, a plain vehicle with emergency lights, has been allocated to our Taxi Compliance Team.
This is a really great move forward for the police and the rest of the force will be looking at us to review its implementation and consideration to develop this across the wider force area. I would be very interested in the community’s views so should you have any contact, experience or sight of the cars and wish to provide feedback please do so via the BID.
AN INTRODUCTION TO PC JOE COLLETT I am PC Joe Collett and I have recently joined the Neighbourhood team at Bridewell Police station, covering Bristol City Centre. I joined Avon and Somerset Constabulary in early 2017 as a Special Constable and became a Regular Officer a year later. I have spent the last 5 years working on the response team at Patchway covering a much larger area, so I am looking forward to getting to know a smaller area better and focusing on a more proactive approach to targeting the issues effecting people within the community. I have already spent a lot of time out on patrol in the area and you may have seen me around, often with one of my PCSO colleagues.
Please do take the opportunity to engage with us and share your concerns and I look forward to working with you to make Bristol a safer and better place for everyone.
TO CALL OR NOT TO CALL? ADVICE FROM A PCSO SUPERVISOR We have heard about abuse of the police 999 service, with calls relating to complaints about late pizza delivery or bins not being collected. We are also concerned with how many times people with legitimate issues tell us that they do not want to waste the time of the police by calling. They then report genuine issues, anti-social behaviour, assault, harassment, theft, criminal damage etc. Please be assured, if you have a genuine belief that there is a crime in progress, or if you are scared or concerned for your welfare or that of others, we want you to report this. If the incident is in progress call 999. If it has happened previously or does not need an immediate response, call 101.
The police would never criticise any call relating to such a genuine belief, even if the situation transpires to be innocent. We have a closure for such incidents, which states, ‘Called with good intent’. If in doubt, please call.