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Sussex Police Message Page.

A Message From Sussex Police To The Community.

Hi All

April sees the start of the new performance plan year and I thought you would be interested in the results achieved over the last year. After a difficult start when crime started to rise across the district we finished the year by reducing overall crime by 2.8% which equates to 147 fewer victims of crime.

Wealden saw big reductions in both burglaries of peoples homes and in violent crime with reductions of 36.1% and 20.8% respectively - the biggest reductions in Sussex!

Whilst I am obviously very pleased with these results and very proud of my team here for all their hard work in achieving them we are now into a new year and have to look ahead. There will undoubtedly be challenges this year in maintaining these figures and reducing crime even further in what is a very low crime area but that is what we are determined to do. This month we have launched our new operation ''Time'' to combat anti social behaviour.
My very own ''time team'' will be out on Fridays and Saturdays across the district, working with our partners in the youth offending team and youth services. They will be responding directly to calls from the public about incidents of anti social behaviour and hopefully stopping problems before they start.

We have had a small change in staff on the district recently and the good news is that PC Cathy Codling (previously at Heathfield) is now our full time anti social behaviour officer. Her replacement is PC Ted Anderson. PC Paul Stephens is looking after our licensing issues and PCSO Ian Thomsett is our casualty reduction officer and will be working with our partners to tackle the number of serious collisions on Wealden Roads. I know that they are really looking forward to taking on their new roles and I am sure you will be meeting them at some point over the year.

In some more good news - at the start of the month we had a small spate of burglaries in the North of the district. Working with our colleagues in Kent we very quickly made some arrests and I am very pleased to tell you that two males have been charged with a number of offences relating to burglary, theft of vehicles and driving offences - it always cheers me up when we catch a burglar!

I will keep you updated with our progress during the year but if you have any questions in the meantime then please feel free to contact me

Regards

Julia Pope

Chief Inspector Julia Pope
Wealden District Commander

Operation Time

Operation Time

Operation Time is a police scheme aimed at reducing anti-social behaviour involving young people, underage drinking and low level crime. Forging stronger links with the communities who suffer from this form of behaviour.

Extra Resources
Under operation Time extra resources form a dedicated team to response promptly to this problem. The team use a van equipped with CCTV to travel to hot spot problem areas and conduct foot patrol interacting with the young people. They also respond to calls. Officers will deal robustly with any young people behaving in an anti-social way or drinking alcohol.

Long Term Solutions
Letters are sent to parents of any offending young person. These progress from an initial warning, second warning of action and a third letter n which they will be invited to attend a meeting with the Police to receive an Acceptable Behaviour Contract which will lay out conditions to address their behaviour. If individuals do not improve under an ABC then the Police will take additional action which can include measures involving housing agencies, Anti-Social Behaviour Orders and parenting orders.

Directed by the Community
We recruit people to join this scheme to assist us in tackling this problem. Once you are member you will receive an automated message by phone or email giving you the details when the next operation will take place. You will also be given a mobile phone number which will put you in direct contact with the officers on the streets. You can use this number to direct officers to any problem areas. Operations will be carried out according to demand and necessity. A weekly update is sent to all members informing them of the weekend actions and successes.

Insp Tony Wakefield
Neighbourhood Policing Team

Previous Month's Message

The Previous Month's Message...

Hi All
It has certainly been an eventful few weeks since my last update to you. We dealt with the tragic deaths of Harry and Elise Donnison at Heathfield and the subsequent impact on the local community. Our thoughts are of course still with the families involved and we await the outcome of the investigation and any trial.

Our crime has continued to fall although we are not complacent and continue to employ a variety of means to catch those who think they can commit crime here.

Our neighbourhoods consistently tell me that anti social behaviour is their priority. We will be launching a new intiative shortly with our partners to combat anti social behaviour around the district. This will incorporate the ability for people to phone us on a dedicated number at weekends to report incidents and will also involve working with the youth offending team to make sure that young people under the influence of alcohol are firstly safe and secondly taken home by their parents who may not otherwise be aware of their behaviour!

You may remember in August last year there was a nasty incident in Herstmonceux where a wedding party was gate crashed by four members of the same family. This family had blighted the neighbourhood for some time with anti social behaviour and we were already working towards gaining anti social behaviour orders for them. All four were sentenced at crown court this week following this incident and I am very pleased to report that three were jailed for periods of 8 months and 12months and the fourth received a fine and a conditional discharge. I hope that this sends out a clear message to those in the community who want to engage in this sort of behaviour that it will not be tolerated and we will actively pursue them.

This week also saw the sad death of a local man following an industrial accident at a premises in Hailsham. We are currently working with the health and safety executive to investigate the circumstances.

I will of course keep you updated with events as they happen but I am hoping for a more peaceful few weeks ahead!

Regards

Julia Pope

Chief Inspector Julia Pope
Wealden District Commander