HeathWatch Spring 2008 - A message from the Borough Inspecto

[Stephen Casey]

It has been a busy period since the last issue of HeathWatch covering the Christmas Holiday period.

Surrey Heath continues to be one of the safest boroughs in the safest county in England and the more serious offences of dwelling burglary, vehicle crime, robbery and serious violence are all lower than last year's low levels.

An individual was recently arrested in the Metropolitan Police area on behalf of Surrey Police for a number of burglaries in West End. he was identified by forensic evidence found at the scene and has admitted nine offences in Surrey Heath.

The town centre was very busy over the festive period but the levels of disorder were comparible to an average weekend. This was due largely to the numbers of police present on the street and initiatives such as taxi marshals who maintain order in taxi queues at the end of the night.

We continue to take a very robust stance on disorder in Camberley town centre in response to the community safety survey which identified the town as the place where people feel least safe. This has resulted in pro-active arrests for low-level assaults and disorder which has caused our overall violent crime levels to rise but this is accepted as the more serious assaults are down.

I was asked why I do not publish the crime statistics as part of this update and the answer is because crime issues such as those described above are not explained simply by figures. If, however, individuals would like details of the crime in their areas then they are published on the Surrey Police website at http://www.surrey.police.uk. Follow the link to 'Your neighbourhood' and scroll down to Crime Statistics and select the area you are interested in. Annual statistics are also published on the Home Office website.

The changes that are happening within surrey Police have been extensively publicised but I want to take this opportunity to clarify a couple of points. There are no proposed changes to the structure of your Neighbourhood Team or to the level of front-line policing.

James Norbury
Borough Inspector, Surrey Heath