Friday update from Southport Police station

Good morning from the North Sefton Neighbourhood Policing Team at Southport police station. Before a round up of yesterday’s Neighbourhood Policing activity in the Southport and Formby areas, here is some information on how we cover the area.

Each of the political wards in the area has its own dedicated Police Constable and one or two Police Community Support Officers (PCSO’s). This doesn’t mean that that is the only police cover that these areas have. Any of us can and do work in any of the wards when required and, of course, Police Officers from Response and Resolution, Targeted Teams, Investigations and CID, Matrix, Traffic and other teams can also work in all areas over the 24 hour period.

The idea of allocating Neighbourhood Police Officers and PCSO’s to areas is to give local residents a dedicated team of officers that that can contact to report local issues that are impacting local areas, and officers that they know and can see patrolling their area on a regular basis. For example, here at Southport, two of our PCSO’s now have 20 and 18 years service and during that time have stayed allocated to the same area (political ward). This has led to strong relationships being built to listen to local residents and to work with partner agencies towards problem solving issue that emerge in our communities. It has also led to a number of significant arrests over the years from having boots on the ground in these areas.

If you don’t know who your dedicated Neighbourhood Officers are, you can find out by going to the website at https://orlo.uk/Zu8fk  and entering your postcode. Your local Neighbourhood Officers will be listed there.
For operational reasons, we can’t reveal all the work we are involved in, all the time, but here is a round up Neighbourhood Policing activity from yesterday.

SOUTHPORT
In Southport town centre we had Police Officers out on foot in plain clothes and mobile in uniform, while PCSO’s were on foot patrol in uniform. A number of stop searches were made. PCSO 0340 dealt with some complaints over parking and other neighbour issues and followed up with victims of ASB and public order incidents. Constable 1440 and PCSO 0196 conducted patrols around Ocean Plaza and liaised with Ocean Plaza security staff over emerging anti-social behaviour around the area.

Officers linked in with a local school after reports of some suspicious activity at school drop off times. Constable 1440 had three voluntary interviews to conduct and more case file paperwork to complete for two thefts and two public order incidents in the town centre.

AINSDALE
Ainsdale dedicated Constable 5018 conducted a Community walk-around with Cllr Lynne Thompson and One Vision Housing to discuss issues in the local area including anti-social behaviour, fly tipping, drug use and neighbour disputes. We have created a survey for the residents of Sandbrook Grove due to complaints of anti-social behaviour and have involved both the Councillor and One Vision Housing Officers in this as a partnership approach to problem solving.

Con 5018 also had a meeting regarding the 'Action For Ainsdale’ initiative and supported a victim of domestic violence, obtaining foodbank support for the victim.
Later on Constable 8441 and PCSO 0272 staffed the Community Police Station on Ainsdale Railway Station to allow local residents to speak with Ainsdale dedicated officers, face to face.

FORMBY
Officers were out on high visibility patrol in Ainsdale village and Formby. Car parks at the National Trust areas were visited, following recent incidents of thefts from cars. Windows have been smashed to steal bags left on view in cars. Always remove anything of value when you park up. Don’t even leave an empty carrier bag on a seat.

Whilst in the area of Formby officers attended Furness Avenue after reports from local residents of multiple cars parking in the area blocking pavements. Officers found several vehicles that were causing an unnecessary obstruction. No owners could be located to be spoken to to get the cars removed and therefore officers issued Traffic Offence Report tickets, which are likely to result in a fine. One resident came out during tickets being issued and appreciated the work that was being done.

Today, there’s big bright full moon in the sky and that usually means a busy time for the emergency services. We shall see what the day brings us.
We have a bike registration event this afternoon at the Bike Workshop in Cambridge Walks (Town centre) from 3:00pm – 5:00pm, so if you want your bike registering and you can make it, come on down. We will be arranging other events if you can’t make this one.