Alcohol Related Violent Crime & DisorderYou may well of seen recent articles in the press before Christmas about the reduction in incidents of crime, disorder and anti-social behaviour within the night time economy. There has been an 11% decrease in such incidents in the town.

It has been brought to our attention that one of the latest scams amongst our non-paying customers is to carry an item that will activate your shop alarm when entering. They will blame the item and continue to shop, selecting and concealing your stock. As they leave the alarm will activate again only this time they are likely to have items on them that have not been paid for. If your alarm is activated be aware!

Once a month the team will be setting up a surgery. Officers will be available for members of the public who have any questions or require advice to come and have a chat.

We would just like to mention that on 5 February it was Warwickshire Polices 150th Anniversary. The Warwickshire Constabulary was established in 1857 with just over 100 officers following a merger of the Knightlow and Barlichway police forces, after the County and Borough Police Act made County policing compulsory. Today we continue our proud tradition of protecting our Warwickshire communities.

So what is Safer Neighbourhoods all about? What’s different?Your team is the same, what’s new is the ethos of how we police. Warwickshire Police has developed 31 teams across the County, which are predominantly Ward based areas. All 43 Forces across the country will have to introduce this by 2008, but Warwickshire are far in advance of other forces in setting this and launched its Safer Neighbourhoods on 21st November 2006.These teams will meet the demands of our local communities for a more visible and effective presence and tackle all forms of crimes and anti-social behaviour.Leamington Town SNT is unique in its make up, as due to the nature of the area, i.e. day and night time economy, its area has been set up from two Wards, Clarendon and Milverton, within these wards two smaller areas have been created to make the Town Safer Neighbourhood Area. This allowing the team to concentrate more on high volume crime, being retail crime, violence and anti social behaviour. A panel has been set up to represent all the area, called a PACT panel, (Partners And Communities Together). There are approximately 15 people that sit on this panel from an extremely varied section of the community, from County, District & Town Councillors, Police, WRCI, Pubwatch, Chamber Trade & Commerce, Fed of small businesses, Royal Priors to name but a few. Cllr Andy Leahy chairs this group.These people represent your views so please get to know your representative to raise any issues you have for the Town.

There will be a section each edition from WRCI for all its members.If you are members of WRCI, please remember this is also a facility to get your views across for how Safer Neighbourhoods works within the town. Please also attend meetings of WRCI as these are important for you and the group. And remember if you have a retail radio have it switched on all the time not just when you need it

As that of WRCI if you are a member of this scheme you have a rep that is included on the PACT panel. Also as police we are the Data Protection Controllers for your folders, which we have recently updated, please ensure you and your staff know where they are. Please also ensure you know when AGM’s are held and attend as this is your chance to have a say about who is or isn’t banned under the scheme. Don’t forget it is your scheme.

centre officers are soon to become more mobile thanks to generous funds off local business and
organisations within Leamington.Over the coming months the team will be buying five specially designed and marked mountain bikes and specialised uniform. Similar teams have been established in Bedworth and Stratford Town Centres with excellent results. The largest donation was a considerable amount from the Leamington branch of WRCI, plus considerable donations from Rio’s and Evolve Nightclubs, Leisure Sec Ltd and Chamber of Trade.

As we are well aware when the SIA was introduced there were many teething problems. The requirement for licensing has now rolled out from door supervisors to security and CCTV operators. Warwickshire has gone from one of the worst in the Midlands for compliance and enforcement to one of the best. That is very much down to everyone within the Town persevering with the system and becoming qualified and registered. Please don’t now forget the renewals will be upon us very soon for door supervisors and let’s not fall into the trap of getting renewals in late.

Over the following weeks you might notice officers walking round with a small camera, approximately the size of a golf ball, attached to their headgear. Leamington Town Centre SNT are testing the camera, which is known as a ‘Robocam’. The camera can record up to 12 hours of footage and store up to 120 hours of evidence. It records what the officer sees and hears. This is going to transform the way offices gather evidence and intelligence. The Town Centre SNT have purchase two of these state of the art camera systems.

From Tuesday 27 February 2007, increased penalties for using a hand held mobile phone while driving and failing to have proper control of a vehicle come into Force. This will now mean a £60 fine and 3 penalty points. For those cases that reach court, in addition to the penalty points, the penalties also involve discretionary disqualification and maximum fine of £1,000. Drive safely!