I had a productive meeting with fellow councillors where we were briefed on levels of crime in the city.

Interesting that out of 15 wards Battenhall and St Peter’s have the lowest level of crime in the city. The city centre experiences roughly 4 to 5 times the amount of crime. Some of this is due to the nigh time economy.

Overall hate crime was slightly up and criminal damage was slightly down.

Council staff and Chief Inspector Gareth Morgan outlined their approach to tackling crime in our communities, including:
 – Neighbourhood watch
 – Local policing overt and covert surveillance
 – Working with resident’s groups
 – Council youth detachment scheme
 – Working with planners (planning applications) to design out crime.

Also some very interesting work publicising work on “We don’t buy crime’ where whole sections of communities have been involved in marking all their possessions with smart water.

One of the biggest issues that is being tackled is that of bike thefts. Probably the biggest factor in this seems to be the quality of bike locks. A £10 lock is very unlikely to deter a determined thief – they can snip through these locks in just a few seconds. If you want real piece of mind you need to invest in something far more robust – even £40 or £50.

Very pleased to see a large emphasis on preventative rather than reactive work.

PACT meetings have been suspended over the last 12 months. This is a shame – they could have continued perhaps as a zoom meeting. Hopefully these will restart soon and we can keep our area as one of the lowest crime areas in the city.