Police aim to build on solid base

Published 31 Mar 2010 16:00 0 Comments

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Chief Inspector Bennet

THE policing plan for the Cowdenbeath area for 2010-2011 will seek to continue to build on the quality of community policing which has been established over the past year.

The plan was launched this week and Chief Inspector Ross Bennet (pictured) said that while results had been encouraging he planned to see further developments in the weeks and months to come.

Looking back over the past year Mr Bennet said, "In February 2010, following a year long successful pilot in the Levenmouth Area, Fife Constabulary introduced the Chicago based Community Engagement Model and this has been extremely well received in the Cowdenbeath Area.

"We now have regular public and police meetings held within the heart of no less than eight of our communities; Crossgates, Hill of Beath, Cowdenbeath, Kingseat, Kelty, Benarty, Lochgelly and Cardenden. At these meetings, the public have provided us with their priorities which we now focus upon to reach acceptable long term resolutions.

"Whilst we have, for many years, listened to our public we now have a more formal structure upon which we can base our responses. The public have told us loud and clear that matters such as anti-social behaviour, speeding and drug dealing are an issue for them. Let me tell you loud and clear - we're listening and we're on it.

"We have also committed more resources to our Community Team and here at Cowdenbeath we are rightly proud of our work within the Community Engagement arena".

He talked about the work of the Operation Laser initiative which has been tackling street disorder.

He said, "The success of this lies in its simplicity. Get Cops out from behind their desks and back on to the streets at our busiest times. So simple it makes you wonder why we hadn't done it before.

"Here at Cowdenbeath we are heavily committed to Laser and the ongoing level and quality of community based intelligence our staff have recorded is testimony to this fact. Assisted by Operation Laser, our anti-social behaviour calls have reduced in many areas by up to 30% on the same period last year. I'll put this in perspective. This can, perhaps, best be evidenced by the change from headlines such as "Ballingry Street like Beruit" to the situation we now have with numerous supportive articles in our weekly paper along with letters from our "Police Friend" and the like."

He went on, "This has been a very successful year for Cowdenbeath Policing area. Our staff have went about their work with purpose, focus, determination and passion. We have used the ethos of dealing with each crime as though it was our first and each victim as though they were a member of our own family.

"We have reduced recorded crime and offences in Groups 1-5 by 14% and in Groups 1-6, which includes matters of disorder such as Breach of the Peace and Assault, by 17%. This includes; Crimes of dishonesty down 27%; Vandalism and Fire-raising down 11%; and Assault and Breach of the Peace down 22%.

"Translating that into raw numbers, there were 3,370 crimes and offences recorded across the Cowdenbeath Area between April 2009 and February 2010. This is 695 fewer than the previous year. Or to put it another way, 695 less crimes and offences which means; 695 less victims which is important to us all and 695 less crimefiles which allows us to devote more time to being out there in the community".

He thanked a whole range of people and organisations for helping make the impact the work on the ground has achieved.

Chief Inspector Bennet continued, "As I've proudly said 2009/2010 has been a particularly successful year for Benarty, Cardenden and Cowdenbeath. All bring their own individual challenges from localised night-time economy, drugs, driver and anti-social behaviour to periodic crime trends. But we are making a difference.

"An example is the Cowdenbeath Business Forum. The Forum started in early 2009 and has prospered into a structured, focused partnership with set aims. These include to: Promote the general interests of our shops and businesses. Reduce crime and the fear of crime. Reassure and empower local communities. Promote sustainable partnerships.Assist regeneration and Importantly, improve our local economy.

"As a consequence, police / business relationships are better than they were previously.

"Our anti-vandalism campaign of education and enforcement - Operation Crack-It has resulted in a reduction in vandalisms together with an increase in detections. Indeed, it was deemed so successful that it went Force-wide in February and was given a meritorious award by our Chief Constable".

Looking ahead we aim to be Tackling Crime/Being There for the Community/Safer Neighbourhoods and Building on Success.

"Each pillar has three aims. These, together with examples of how we, at Cowdenbeath, will tackle these aims are; Tackling Crime - Violent Crime, Together we will continue to robustly focus upon all aspects of violent crime.

"Drugs. We will continue to target a dealer a week and through our partners embrace education. We cannot under estimate the impact drugs has on many other crime trends both in terms of finance to purchase them and behaviour whilst under the influence.

"Sexual Crime. We will encourage people to come forward and report crime and work with our partners to promote prevention and education.

"Being There for the Community - We will continue to focus heavily upon Community Policing and, if possible, will further enhance our community policing resources.

"We will seek and listen to any feedback we receive. Our greatest sources of education can sometimes be our biggest critics.

"An example of this occurred last April. I received a complaint about speeding in Cowdenbeath. Knowing that our speed camera vans deploy there I was, in truth, slightly sceptical. Nevertheless I sent our Divisional Development Team along with the speedar gun. They came back within half an hour, "Boss" PC Kenny said, "there is a problem", "they are speeding alright." "Oh aye" I said "what speed like?" "45 was our top one" he replied. Our speedar deployment increased there and then. We have also worked with our partners. Road calming measures have been introduced at this site.

"We will commit to enhancing our visibility through not only Laser deployments but the increased use of technology, such as airwave, which allows us to remain out on the streets more of the time.

"Anti-social Behaviour. We will use all our resources and work in partnership with other agencies to reduce anti-social behaviour. We will progress partnership plans to purchase Domehawk cameras for the area to both prevent and detect anti-social behaviour. Remembering that a society's ethic can best be measured by how it protects those most at risk, we will, in tandem with our partners, focus upon improving life for the vulnerable. We will make full use of Cause for Concern referrals and other means of ensuring longer-term solutions for those at risk".

He concluded, "We are determined to build on our success. We will continue to deliver of our best at all times, again treating each and every crime victim as though they were the first we had ever encountered."

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