Police news

Voice of the Blue Light: Gillingham Rural Neighbourhood Team

Monthly news from different voices within the North Dorset Police Team.

The town of Gillingham and surrounding villages has a local Neighbourhood team stationed at Gillingham comprising of One Sergeant (Francis), One Constable (Geraint) and 2 x PCSOs (Fear and Biggs) Details of the team and our current priorities can be found here - https://www.dorset.police. uk/neighbourhood-policing/ gillingham-and-shaftesbury/ Neighbourhood officers work closely with Partner Agencies from other services to look at providing sustainable long term solutions to local issues.

Inspector Simon Perry 1656

Our current 3 local priorities are: 1. Anti Social behaviour: dealing with persistent offenders and repeat victims 2. Drug offences: tackling County Lines and organised drug dealers and protecting Vulnerable Victims, 3. Rural crime: with a focus on Burglary.

One example of our Partnership working in Gillingham is that in December working with a local Housing Association, Council teams and the forces Vulnerability lawyer we secured a Closure Notice on a property in the town.

The address was linked to anti-social behaviour and drug offences.

This sends out a clear message that such locations will not be tolerated, and that enforcement action will be taken against repeat offenders. All persons, with the exception of the tenant, have been excluded from the property and any persons found in breach of this order can be arrested. This has resulted in a noticeable decline in the number of reported incidents and issues at the location, and demonstrates how Partnership work can be effective in tackling such issues, for the benefit of local residents. Now we have moved into Tier 5 Restrictions we receive a lot of contact around Covid 19 issues.

Guidance around our Police response can be found here: https://www.dorset.police.uk/ covid-19-coronavirus/

These are clearly unprecedented and challenging times, and we are grateful for the Community’s support around adherence to the current Tier 5 measures.

Our team will patrol and respond to community concerns and will continue to Engage, Explain, Encourage and Enforce the current Measures.

As always for current updates on the work the team undertake please follow our Social Media page NORTH DORSET POLICE on Facebook and/or Twitter