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Wednesday, 18 August 2010 15:11 |
We are now nearly half way through our performance year so I thought I would give you an update around the current crime trends and levels. Overall crime is down by just over 14% a reduction of 309 offences. There are also big reductions in vehicle crime with 59 less offences and criminal damge with 81 less offences. This is great news and hopefully reassures you that you are living in a very safe area. My officers and staff are working hard every day to keep these figures low and we have had a number of successes in disrupting criminals who try to visit our area to commit crime.
We have continued to see thefts from sheds and outbuildings in mostly isolated locations so please report any suspicious activity and any suspicious vehicles you see to us. It all helps to build up a picture of where we need to target our resources. Theft of metal particularly scrap metal has seen an increase as the value of metal has gone up. As I write this we have a male in custody for such a theft and we recently ran an operation with trading standards and the vehicle and operators service agency to target unlicensed scrap dealers.
As you are aware we have now made two arrests in relation to the assualt at Wadhurst and two men from Surrey are currently on bail. A very good arrest was made last week following a report of suspicious activity at a house in Hailsham. It was found that the house had been burgled and officers tracked the suspect to another address where he was found hiding in a cupboard! All of the property was recovered and he has been charged with burglary, theft of a vehicle and disqualified driving. His new address is now care of Her Majesty''s prison! This was a really good team effort by the officers and some very good work by the member of the public who called us leading to a speedy resolution - in fact the officers described it as being like an episode of ''The Bill'' !
We have been working with our colleagues in the roads policing unit over the last 3 months to target poor driving and road traffic offences in the area. The operation is due to conclude shortly but to date there have been around 800 prosecutions for offences such as speeding, using a mobile phone and not wearing a seatbelt. I will give you more details in my next update but hopefully this has sent out a firm message that we will not tolerate anti social behaviour on our roads.
Please feel free to contact me or my staff if you have any queries about policing in your area.
Regards
Julia |
Police News
