Southport police morning update

Good morning from Southport Police Station. Before we round up the activity that Neighbourhood Officers were involved in yesterday, here is some background information.

Southport Police Station is staffed by Police Officers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is home to Police Officers in ‘Response and Resolution’, who respond to 999 and 101 calls and it is home to three teams of Police Officers and Police Community Support Officers (PCSO’s) that make up the North Sefton Neighbourhood Policing Team. The Neighbourhood teams are supervised by three sergeants and the neighbourhood Inspector, who are all also based at Southport.

Neighbourhood teams have a community engagement focus to their role, so we don’t generally work through the night (when people are asleep), but we do work combinations of day and late shifts, generally up to midnight, but with capacity to go into the early hours when required. Response and Resolution Officers do, of course, work throughout the nights. Within the Neighbourhood teams, officers have a large range of skills from public order training to investigations. We have rural crime officers, taser trained police officers and we have police officers and PCSO’s who tutor new officers, among other skills.

Last week was a particularly busy week in Southport, with multiple serious incidents taking place at the same time. One incident, the scene of an incidence of ‘Violence Against The Person’ was reported last Wednesday morning. The circumstances of what had taken place were not clear. Three people were arrested however, it was a complex investigation. The location was held as a crime scene from last Wednesday, as it required multiple return visits from Crime Scene Investigators (CSI’s), until yesterday afternoon when it was able to be closed, although investigations into the matter are continuing.

 Over all that time the crime scene had to be managed and kept secure. Police Officers and PCSO’s from the Neighbourhood team played a big part in managing that crime scene. Where PCSO’s are available to manage crime scenes, it frees Police Officers up to be available for other emergencies, which was particularly relevant last week.

In addition to that crime scene, another of our PCSO’s, and later on a Neighbourhood Police Officer, were also required at another crime scene at Tesco in Formby yesterday after a burglary took place on Sunday night.

Elsewhere yesterday, Neighbourhood Officers from Team 3 conducted open land searches in Southport and Formby. (See photos). During these searches a lock knife hidden in leaves and 2 large boxes off unused nitrous oxide cannisters were found in Formby. Further cannisters were also located at a different location after a member of the public had reported them. These were a mixture of used and unused.

PCSO’s 0240 and 0111 were out on foot patrol in Churchtown (See map of route) before taking over the crime scene and PCSO 0053 was on foot patrol in High Park, making visits to shops and businesses. This follows a meeting held with business owners in Churchtown before Christmas, which was requested following a spate of business burglaries that affected some businesses in Churchtown and High Park. This was the spate of businesses that Joshua Johnson was arrested, charged and jailed for and that Neighbourhood PCSO’s played a big part in assisting with the investigations. In addition to this, PCSO 0053 was involved with making CCTV enquires, a School visit, returning some property to a member of the public, making a reassurance visit to someone who had received threats, a meeting regarding two new children’s homes and another reassurance visit to a victim of theft.

PCSO 0038 attended a neighbour related incident in Formby before being required to cover the crime scene at Tesco.

Neighbourhood Police Officers yesterday also assisted Response and Resolution Officers in responding to 999 and 101 calls attending a neighbour dispute, where there were threats to cause criminal damage, a domestic incident, a call where a personal attack alarm had been activated and assisted with prisoner transport for two men arrested in Southport where an assault had taken place.
From a community engagement aspect we held a police surgery at Formby Library and today, there will be another one in Hightown today. See separate post for that. We are planning more open land searches today, but of course, these plans may change depending on incidents which may take place during the day.
We will post another update tomorrow morning.