Summer sun and safer streets

There is a well-known saying that one swallow doesn’t make a summer. Roughly translated, it means you should never jump the gun and make a hasty conclusion based on limited evidence. Even so, it’s hard not to be encouraged by the early results of the seasonal operation currently targeting so-called street crime.

It may not be the snappiest title a police operation was ever given, but so far, the ‘Safer Streets Summer Initiative’ in Gloucestershire has led to 29 arrests with a further 27 people given anti-social behaviour-related out-of-court disposals and a number of illegal e-bikes and scooters seized. Out of court disposals are when matters result in outcomes such as cautions, conditional cautions, penalty notices and community resolutions.

The operation is a nationwide initiative, which was launched locally in Gloucester on 30 June and will continue until the end of September. It is the kind of visible policing, designed to make our town and city centres safer by tackling things like shoplifting, street crime and other forms of anti-social behaviour and is exactly what the citizens of Gloucestershire expect of their police force. I know that because it’s what you tell me.

So it was particularly pleasing that suspected shoplifters were among those arrested during the first weeks of this operation and that the Constabulary’s neighbourhood teams seized a number of illegal e-bikes and scooters, which have become such a hazard on our roads and on our pavements.

Seven e-bikes were seized in Cheltenham; A man was arrested following a burglary at Five Valleys Shopping Centre in Stroud in connection with the theft of £6,000 worth of phones; two suspected shoplifters were arrested in Cinderford; another man was arrested in Stroud charged with being drunk and disorderly and assaulting an emergency worker; and a number of Public Space Protection Orders were imposed in Cheltenham and Gloucester to limit street drinking so it’s happening right across the county. And that was just the start. 

One of my priorities over the next four years is for people in Gloucestershire to feel safe and to have trust and confidence in their Constabulary. Successful, high visibility operations like The Safer Street Summer Initiative is an ideal opportunity for us to make a real difference in all our communities across the county, because it is addressing crimes I know the public are most concerned about.