PSNI North Down District Commander Superintendent Graham Shields

 

 Superintendent Shields spoke on the subject of

                'Policing Town Centre'

 

 

Superintendent Shields presentation detailed crimes of most concern to retailers and the methods of combating them, which the PSNI are planning to introduce over the coming months.

Local businesses are vulnerable to four types of crimes – retail theft, assault, criminal damage and antisocial behaviour.  Crime rates for the first two in the town centre have increased slightly over the past year with 135 thefts and 234 assaults since April 2005.  These figures account for 52% and 38% of the total occurrences in the Borough.

Criminal damage has slightly decreased at 213 incidents in the last year, but it is antisocial behaviour, which encompasses a wide variety of infractions from graffiti to robbery and more serious crimes, that had the most occurrences.

Superintendent Shields added that the number of incidents of antisocial behaviour rises during the months of July and December. It is the PSNI’s conclusion that it is the young people in the borough who are largely to blame.

In order to address retail crime related issues, the PSNI are offering awareness training courses for retail thefts – this has proved popular in the Flagship Centre.  There’s also a Community Police Officer who patrols 9am – 5pm daily and a number of retailers have adopted the Town Centre Radio links between shops and the police station.

In order to address issues relating to the nighttime economy, the PSNI have arranged for door staff registration programmes and increased patrol visibility.  The latter, he explained, was responsible for the increase in arrests for street drinking from less than ten in 2002 to more than eighty last year.

"There is a direct link between street drinking and violence," he said. "This rise does not reflect the fact that the problem is getting worse, but that we are successfully implementing a zero tolerance policy."