Agenda item

Thames Valley Police Update

To receive the above update from Thames Valley Police.

Minutes:

Louise Warbrick, Thames Valley Police, introduced the item and gave an overview of policing in Windsor. She gave an overview of recorded crime figures in the distinct Windsor West, Windsor East and Windsor Central policing areas from July 1st to November 1st, based on the priority detection areas.

 

Theft From Motor Vehicle

50 occurrences in Windsor West with 7 arrests; 57 in Windsor East with no arrests and no detections; and 52 in Windsor Central with 4 arrests.

 

Theft Of Motor Vehicle

9 occurrences in Windsor West with 1 arrest; 17 in Windsor East with 1 arrest and 1 detection; and 9 in Windsor Central with 6 arrests

 

Theft Of Pedal Cycle

10 occurrences in Windsor West with 1 arrest; 3 in Windsor East with no arrests; and 37 in Windsor Central with 3 arrests. The figure for Windsor Central could be higher as cycles were stolen from the railway stations, but this would be a matter for British Transport Police.

 

Business Burglaries

6 occurrences in Windsor West with no arrests; 10 in Windsor East with1 arrest and 1 detection; and 19 in Windsor Central with 6 arrests.

 

Residential Burglaries

33 occurrences in Windsor West with 6 arrests; 39 in Windsor East with 4 pairs of arrests in one job and two other separate arrests; and 22 in Windsor Central with 3 arrests.

 

Between October 2018 and November 2019 there had been a total of 126 burglaries in Windsor West 126, 109 in Windsor East and 97 in Windsor Central. An offender from London had recently been charged in connection to burglaries in Windsor.

 

Cllr Shelim stated there had been an increase in cars being stolen from driveways after the keys were cloned. Louise Warbrick said advice had been issued on combatting this and there were simple ways to prevent it.

 

It was agreed that figures for serious crimes would be presented to a forthcoming meeting.

 

Louise Warbrick confirmed that there was a policing operation plan for New Year’s Eve in Windsor. Thames Valley Police were waiting to confirm the input from South Central Ambulance Service. There would be some input from specialist officers from the Council. Consideration was being given to implementing a one-way system to alleviate traffic congestion. It was confirmed that Atik would be open until 4am under a Temporary Event Notice; there had been no grounds under crime and disorder that the police could realistically object to. Louise Warbrick stated that Atik would be employing additional security. She said that staff at a number of venues in Windsor would be using body worn cameras to assist in crime prevention and detection. This system was already in place at Atik, and consideration was being given to including it as one of the venue’s licence conditions.

 

Residents attending the Forum raised a number of concerns regarding serious offences being committed in central Windsor, including drug taking, serious assaults, urinating in public and sexual assaults. Residents said offences were being committed on a regular basis throughout the early hours, and many people were too scared to look out through their windows to see what was happening in case there were repercussions. Louise Warbrick said that all significant crimes reported would be subject to a review each morning and investigation plans formulated. If offences related to a specific premises then the police would look to work with the venue to combat future incidents. The Chairman stated his belief that more policing resources needed to be deployed to combat serious offences being committed in this area.

 

Residents of Spinners Walk stated that cars were, with increasing regularity, being driven along the pavement in order to get around vehicles that were parked in the road, due to it being so narrow.

 

Louise Warbrick said that if someone was witnessing a crime in progress then they should call 999, but if this was not possible then action could still be taken against an offender retrospectively if evidence could be captured.

 

Cllr Shelim left the meeting at 7.29pm.

 

Louise Warbrick told the Forum that new initiatives had been introduced to try to tackle serious violence. One of these was the Aspire Project, an early intervention scheme run in partnership with Reading Football Club that was targeted at children identified by police or partners as being at risk. This would be run at Windsor Boys school. The VAL-U holiday programme had been set up to provide diversion work for children on edge of criminality, who had been identified through school exclusion, first time attention to the police, and through the Youth Offending Team. This would run during the 2020 school holidays. Drama performances relating to youth violence and knife crime was being rolled out to secondary schools and Gaming Buses were being deployed in key hotspot locations, with the aim of engaging young people and breaking down barriers. Mini police schemes were being introduced to children aged 9-12 to engage with youngsters and get them involved in community activities. In addition there was an ongoing commitment to carrying out knife and alcohol test purchase operations each month.