Good morning from the North Sefton Neighbourhood Team at Southport Police Station, on day 3 of ‘NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICING WEEK’.

Yesterday we had uniformed officers out on foot patrol in Cambridge and Meols wards, Norwood, Kew, Dukes (Southport Town Centre) wards, as well as officers on mobile patrol across the wider area. These patrols included off licence visits and visits to other local businesses, along with meetings with local partner agencies in the town centre, such as the foodbank at Shoreline Church, where PCSO Williams can be seen in the photographs below.

As a result of this engagement with the community, 13 intelligence reports were submitted, on a variety of subjects. This is a key function of the Neighbourhood Policing role and we would encourage you to get to know your local officers and help us to help you tackle the people responsible for crime and anti-social behaviour in your areas. The small piece of information you have may be the last piece of the jigsaw we need to complete the intelligence picture.

Officers conducted open land searches at Duke Street Park in Formby, Bedford Park and Crossens Recreation Ground.

Four stop searches were conducted by officers on patrol on Lord Street. These generated two arrests for possession of cannabis and two of the intelligence reports mentioned before.

Two youths were detained by Constables on patrol to disrupt anti-social behaviour in Hesketh Park. Both were in possession of cannabis close to the children’s play area. Their details were confirmed and prosecution will follow.

Crime reports in the Kew area were responded to by a Kew Ward PCSO. These included reports of traffic related issues, youth anti-social behaviour, follow up reassurance visits to victims of crime and suspicious circumstances. PCSO's also conducted a follow up visit to victims of a burglary in Birkdale.

Visits to licenced premises in Southport town centre were conducted by our licencing officer, who is one of the Constables in the Southport Neighbourhood team, while off licences are regularly visited by our PCSO’s as part of their foot/cycle patrols.

Those following the posts for NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICING WEEK will see that the work done by the North Sefton team on Tuesday was quite different from that done on Monday, and that is the nature of Neighbourhood Policing. Some days consist of long miles of foot/cycle patrol or patrol in liveried police vehicles. We may not make a large number of arrests on those days, but we will never be able to quantify the preventative effect of just being visible and accessible in our communities. We are always looking to find information that we can develop into intelligence reports though, so the time is never wasted.

Today, we start again. Knife crime presentations continue at high schools in Formby today and Ainsdale residents are reminded that there is a chance to meet their dedicated Ainsdale Neighbourhood officers tonight at our regular police surgery at the Community Police Station on Ainsdale Railway Station. See the poster below for details.

Please feel free to come over and speak to us when you see us out on patrol in your area.