From Acting inspector James Twyford, head of the Melksham and Trowbridge Community Policing Team
We’re well into planning for the Christmas and New Year period now; looking at proactive operations to tackle shoplifting.
We run “Op Elf” every year at the same time; looking to disrupt those would-be shoplifters. We’ve also seen an extra rise in shoplifting offences this year; we’re surmising due to the cost-of-living crisis. Fortunately, we work alongside some eagle-eyed security guards, who are spotting most of these offences as they occur, preventing their stores from taking unacceptable losses and getting good evidence for us to prosecute the offenders.
We’re also patrolling licensed premises to make sure that everyone can enjoy the World Cup in a safe environment. So far, we’re pleased to report that it’s been well natured on the whole.
Our other focus continues to be on our back-to-basics programme in the wake of the latest HMIC inspection. It boils down to three things: victims, investigations and vulnerability. We’ve created new victim contact contracts; vulnerability risk assessments and a variety of tools to make sure investigations are quality-focussed. This has been built into our everyday business now, so we expect to see continued improvement in these areas.
We also ran Op Scorpion again this week, targeting local drugs lines. We’ve seized a few thousand pounds worth of controlled drugs from a number of addresses across the county. The Melksham team got involved in several of these, over three days.