An update from Durham Police and Crime Commissioner
BRIEFING – CATCH UP EDITION
This edition brings together a round-up of key activity, announcements and achievements from the past couple of months.
Safer Neighbourhoods
Winter of Action success increases safety and helps communities thrive
Between November and January, partners and I have launched an ambitious effort to prevent and tackle crime in communities hardest hit by problems, as part of a new winter crackdown.
I have supported the Government’s Winter of Action initiative and will be unleashing with partners - a host of new safety measures including extra foot patrols to step up enforcement and deter criminality in town centres across the force area.
The initiative follows the success of the Safer Streets Summer campaign a 12-week scheme which saw the us working collaboratively with partners to intensify action against retail crime, anti-social behaviour (ASB), violence and other problems.
Anti-crime pods target retail crime and ASB in Darlington
Two new state-of-the-art anti-crime pods have joined the fight against shoplifting, violence against shopworkers and anti-social behaviour in Darlington.
I have proudly invested £7,280 in two Safer Pods to deter shoplifting and anti-social behaviour (ASB) in and outside retail units in Darlington as part of my promise to increase support for retailers and their employees.
Retail Crime is a priority under the Safer People Safer Places theme of my Police, Crime and Justice Plan, and additional pods will be installed in other parts of the force area in the coming months.
Youngsters have been working side-by-side with elderly residents as part of an exciting new gardening project aimed at transforming community spaces.
As part of my wider approach to rural crime prevention, I provided funding worth £1k towards the cost of bedding plants, compost and new planters as well as materials to fix existing containers for the project, led by Neighbourhood Warden John Smith in partnership with Pelton Parish Council.
Young volunteers from Roseberry School and Pelton School have been working alongside the Pelton Youth Project Team and the local nursing home and Resident Associations, spending time outdoors carrying out gardening tasks.
Road safety campaigners, dignitaries and MPs joined bereaved families for a poignant service to remember victims of road tragedies on the region’s roads in November.
The service, held at Durham Cathedral on Sunday 23rd November, marked World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims and saw police officers from the force’s Roads Policing Team and their counterparts in Northumbria and Cleveland come together to remember the many who have been killed or seriously injured on the roads.
I am delighted to announce more funding for the expansion of the ParkSafe Initiative across more schools in the force area.
Fulfilling my promise to tackle the issues that matter most to our communities, I provided £4k worth of funding towards the scheme to improve the safety of parking around school areas for pedestrians, residents and road users and was delighted to visit Lanchester EP Primary School in Lanchester to talk to children about ParkSafe and how it’s working for them.
Road safety experts descend on Durham for national drug driving conference
Durham has played host to a major national summit examining drug driving and the need for wider drug and alcohol testing in the workplace.
The event brought together those at the forefront of improving safety on the UK’s roads with industry experts, policy leaders and business representatives with the victims’ perspective ‘front and centre’ of the discussions.
Under the microscope was the current challenges in drug testing, the limitations of enforcement and legislation, and the work I am doing locally and nationally to expand workplace drug and alcohol testing across the country to achieve the cultural shift needed to save lives.
I was delighted to visit Darlington’s drug and alcohol services in November to hear first-hand how partners are supporting people on their journey to recovery and reducing the impact of substance misuse on our communities.
The visit included meetings with dedicated staff at the WithYou service and service users across three key sites in Darlington, where success stories were shared and the life-changing impact of innovative treatment options explained. These services are vital for delivering on my Police, Crime and Justice Plan priorities to prevent crime and reduce reoffending, support victims and build safer, stronger communities.
