Welcome to April’s edition of Saltdean and Rottingdean’s monthly updates.

April has not been a particularly busy period for me in the Neighbourhood Policing team. There have been many isolated incidents which has included youths being a nuisance on the beach, along with various neighbour disputes. 

Many of these Neighbourhood dispute include property boundary discrepancies. It is important to understand that this is not a Police concern and advice will need to be sought from the Civil Advice Bureau.

I also attended the local Neighbourhood Watch scheme which happened at the Lido. It was nice to meet some members of the local community and some familiar faces. It is important for the Police to continue to work closely with the NHW as they provide us with so much valuable information. If you do however have a genuine concern that needs to be raised with the Police, please report this via 101 or if it is an emergency, report with via 999.

There is continuing reports of residents who are falling victim to a scam whereby an individual is posing as a member from Sussex Police. I will echo what I wrote in last month’s report:

Across Brighton and Hove there have been report of individuals posing as the Police and requesting bank details. Please note that Sussex Police will never ask for your bank details over the phone. If we do ever require such information, you may be sent an authorisation form which is to be completed in person, with another officer. If you are concerned about the identity of the person that is calling you, you can request the callers warrant number and name. Then, you can call 101 and confirm the numbers with the call operator. This is the best way to confirm a Police officer’s identity. 

When it comes to online safety it is also important to use strong and unique passwords. This will make it more difficult for hackers to guess your password. It is recommended that you use three different words along with a number and a symbol. Enable a multi-factor authentication system as this means if someone correctly guesses the password they will need to also correctly know the other steps that you have set up.