Nottinghamshire Police have revealed that crime levels have significantly dropped in the City Centre with a total of 2,520 fewer crimes reported in the last year.
This is a reduction of around 22 per cent compared to rates in 2018-19 and the success is down to the neighbourhood policing teams proactive work.
Chief Inspector Amy English said: “All our officers are committed to tackling crime, anti-social behaviour and the issues that affect people who live and work in the city centre, or who are simply enjoying a visit.”
The neighbourhood policing teams work alongside specialist policing units to tackle specific areas of crime in the city centre from the night time economy to local community officers.
“Our ultimate priority is to keep people safe.”
Chief Inspector Amy English
She continues: “To achieve this, we have multiple teams including our Operation Compass and Operation Reacher teams who are dedicated to proactively tackling issues such as antisocial behaviour, including working closely with partners to try to break the cycle of offending.
“As part of this, our officers carry out regular high-visibility patrols to provide both a reassuring presence on the streets and also feet on the ground to respond quickly to any incidents as they happen.
“Our ultimate priority is to keep people safe.”
The five teams are Operation Reacher, Compass, Guardian, Castle (night time economy) and traditional neighbourhood teams – they work together to reduce crime in the city centre each focusing on certain issues that need tackling.
Golden Fleece chef Dexter Lacey, 20, said: “I wouldn’t say I have seen more or less crime but maybe that’s because the police are dealing with the situation and people rather than just letting the crime happen.
Operation Reacher has had 12 teams since October 2020 and they deal with community concerns, building relationships with residents and to disrupt organised criminality.
The city centre Reacher team is headed up by Sergeant Louise Ellis, who said: “In total, we executed 90 warrants at addresses linked to suspects and that resulted in us seizing a variety of dangerous weapons and drugs that are a blight on our communities.
“In one week alone we seized £2.5m worth of class A and B substances as part of a crackdown on drugs.”
Operation compass tackles complicated issues associated with vulnerable people and have made 347 arrests seizing drugs and weapons while in action.
The anti-violence programme, operation guardian, use specially trained sniffer dogs to reduce the use of illegal drugs and violence.
Typically they stop and search up to 50 people in a night, often leading to an arrest.
This goes hand in hand with the night time economy team, operation castle, implementing metal detectors outside bars, high visibility policing and CCTV to make efficient arrests.
Operation Castle are a big reason as to how Nottingham has retained it’s Purple Flag status for 12 years which is an award that recognises safety in the night time economy.
Sergeant Rich Tiernan and Sergeant Paul Whitehead leads the traditional neighbourhood teams of local community officers to solve issues affecting residents, visitors and businesses.
A key part of the traditional team is their part in tackling knife crime and anti social behaviour.
