Chief Inspector

Natalie Carron's Message

 

July/August 2008

It's been a busy month of meeting staff and partners and looking at the way we Police the District.

 

Two days in and I witnessed a fantastic display of how we as a community can really tackle crime. The robbery at W.E. Clarke & Sons Jewellers in Cliffe High Street brought out the true spirit of people who thwarted the escape of the robbers by taking the keys from their getaway car and then giving chase on foot. With a fast response from my officers - helped by the numerous calls and information coming in we were able to secure the scene and give chase. With the expert skills of the Road Policing Unit and the Tactical Firearms Unit the pursuit was brought to a successful end near Hailsham. Property was recovered, and with my CID team conducting a thorough and detailed investigation I can report that the offenders have already appeared in Court and have pleaded guilty. They are now in prison awaiting sentencing. This really shows what can be achieved when we all work together. I

 

I would also like to take this chance to thank all those involved - well done - what better way to show criminals that crime in our community will not be tolerated. Mind you, robberies of this nature do not happen very often, in the last year there were none in Lewes.

 

Also in May I had pleasure in visiting the 'Safety in Action' week held at Plumpton Racecourse. In its ninth year this is jointly organised by Sussex Police and Lewes District Council and was supported by enthusiastic staff from many agencies and partners. It was visited by 805 10 and 11 year old pupils from all over our District who spent 10 minutes with each agency completing an interactive safety scenario. Importantly, this year internet safety was introduced for the first time due to an increasing amount of young people using social networking sites. The event is a competition sponsored financially by Seaford Rotary Club. The winning school was Southover in Lewes with St John's in Seaford winning a prize for the best Special Educational Needs school. An enormous amount of effort by all those involved ensured an enjoyable and educational event reaching a substantial number of young people living on the District.

 

Looking at performance ....

In comparison to the monthly average over last year you will see a decrease in offences reported except burglaries in the Lewes area and damage to cars in Seahaven.

 

Although few in number, recognising how traumatic being a burglary victim can be, this is one of the highest priorities for me and my team as well as the Force as a whole.
We have worked with both the press and Lewes Crime Disorder Reduction Partnership to raise the awareness of bogus callers to peoples homes. There have been instances where the elderly have been called upon by males pretending to be from the water board investigating leaks in neighbours properties. Never let anyone into your home unless you are sure of their identity. If anyone tries always ring 0845 60 70 999 and tell us even if they haven't managed to get in, we need to catch these callous burglars.

 
Each month I will continue to report on crime as it is reported to us. However, I also want to ensure that we are dealing with the issues that effect you locally. Each town has a local action team (LAT) - a multi agency forum dealing with community safety and crime reduction issues. They are teams of committed individuals who want to make a difference to the local area. I would like to build on their excellent work by creating neighbourhood panels.

 

Neighbourhood panels (NHP) are about local people working together to identify and solve local community safety issues. The panels consist of around 10 people who represent the community. They look at the results of community consultations along with information from partners and the Police to identify 3 top priorities. They then get involved in deciding what action could be taken to address the issues. Monitor and feedback results to the community.

 

I will be working with the community safety unit of the LDC and my neighbourhood specialist teams to see how we can take this forward. If you are interested in becoming a panel member E-mail me or speak to your local PCSO.

If you have ideas as to how we can improve our service please feel free to contact me by

E-Mail (Natalie.carron@sussex.pnn.police.uk) or ring me on 01273 665964.

Some of you will have received letters from me when we have had cause to speak to your children. This is to let you know what they are up to! You’ll only get such a letter if your child is causing a problem. I have spoken to several parents over the past month who are very supportive of our approach. Lewes District is a fantastic area for children to grow up but we could always do with improving what facilities and activities are available for them. I am working with our partners in the Newhaven area to look at potential funding for activities for children in the area. If you are involved in community based projects with children please do get in touch with your local NST Sergeant to see if we can work together to support your cause.  Looking at performance …. The July statistics will not be available until the middle of the month, I’ll update them when they are available.

 

	Lewes Town & Rural(Population 37,000)		Telscombe, Peacehaven, Newhaven & Seaford(Population 55,000)
	Average per month 2007/08	June2008	Average per month 2007/08	June2008
Houses burgled	6	14	7	5
Cars stolen	4	3	9	7
Damage to cars	29	17	42	34
Violence Friday/Saturday night	5	2	6	12
Theft from cars	19	46	21	10
Damage (not including damage to cars)	27	22	55	32

 

 If you have any information on crime being committed in your area then please either ring me, drop into you local station, ring 0845 607099 or crime stoppers which is an anonymous system on 0800 555 111.  If you have ideas as to how we can improve our service please feel free to contact me by E-Mail (Natalie.carron@sussex.pnn.police.uk) or ring me on 01273 665964. 

The summer is upon us and with the children having broken up from school we will be looking to parental support in keeping our youngsters on the straight and narrow!! You may well have seen the Sussex Express front page headlines being shared between the incinerator protestors and issues with local youths. My officers are regularly taking alcohol from youngsters. I am really pleased to say that having run some undercover operations to test whether local traders are selling to under 18’s this month, NONE of them did. I can then only assume that these youngsters are taking alcohol from home or being given it by other adult.

 

We all know the evils of alcohol and I really need parental support to ensure that YOUR child isn’t drinking in the local parks and recreation grounds. This inevitably leads to anti-social behaviour and mindless damage being caused. We have some relatively young children roaming the streets very late at night …. Do you know where your child is? If they are going to a friends house then it wouldn’t do any harm to check with the respective parents or carers that they are being supervised! 

 

Chief Inspector

Natalie Carron's Message

 

June/July 2008

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