Weekend shifts can differ greatly throughout the year for a number of reasons. During the summer months Neighbour Officers work as part of Operation: Beachsafe, patrolling the coastline from Southport to Formby to deal with crime and anti-social behaviour on the beaches and surrounding areas. Very often during summer weekends, Neighbourhood Officers will be involved in searches for missing children.

One weekend in 2020 Merseyside had the highest number of missing children on beaches of the whole of the UK. The larger numbers of people that descend on the seafront areas between Southport and Formby in summer do need to be covered by the emergency services and Operation: Beachsafe is a multi-agency effort between Merseyside Police, North West Ambulance Service, Merseyside Fire and Rescue, the Coastguard and Council agencies.

During the dark nights period there can be more reports of anti-social behaviour around the parks and gardens areas, and burglaries that Neighbourhood Officers will attend to offer victim support services and assist in investigations. In recent weeks we assisted other teams and the police helicopter with a search for a high risk suicidal person, who was found at night in Formby woods. Neighbourhood Police Officers and PCSO’s are often involved in these searches and have been first to find the people on many occasions.

And all of the above is in addition to the calls that come in each day, right across the year.

This weekend we had officers on mobile patrol in Southport town centre where they paid particular attention to Chapel Street and Tulketh Street, following complaints of anti-social behaviour in these areas. In addition, Botanic Gardens and Folkestone Road were both paid attention due to similar complaints of anti-social behaviour and criminal damage. More investigation work into the recent issues at Botanic gardens will continue on Monday.

Between patrol times one of our Police Constables was involved in building up the evidence for a Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) for a prolific offender around the town centre and other areas of town. This involves compiling all the incidents together to be presented to a magistrate some time in the future when the offender is back in court. Each person subject to a CBO will have conditions unique to them but generally it will ban an individual from the area where they have offended and, if they breach the terms of the order, they can be arrested and jailed. Ten individuals are currently subject to CBO’s put together by Southport Neighbourhood Officers and one individual is currently in jail having been found in breach of conditions. The Neighbourhood team of Police Officers and PCSO’s as a whole will look out for, and evidence, breaches of the orders.

Also on Saturday, another of our Neighborhood Police Officers further arrested a teenager who was arrested earlier in the week on suspicion of conspiracy to supply class ‘B’ drugs. The teenager was interviewed at Southport Police Station.
Outside of the town, Officers made use of the Land Rover by assisting with patrols of the Cheshire Lines path following complaints of use of off-road motorbikes and patrolled roads off the Formby bypass where fly-tipping has taken place three times in recent week. Our Wildlife Officer also attended a local shoot and Carr Side Fishery, Ince Blundell where rod licences were checked and to ensure the people fishing had not suffered any anti-social behaviour in the area.

Later on, three youths were stopped and searched by Neighbourhood Officers in Kings Gardens under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. Cannabis and ecstasy tablets were found in the searches. All three had their details verified and will be interviewed at Southport Police Station in the coming days.

A man was dealt with by Community Resolution for possession of cannabis after officers called at an address following reports of a possible cannabis farm.

Today (Sunday 23rd) we have a bike marking event planned at the Co-Op on Fylde Road between 2:00pm and 4:00pm. Come along and have your bike registered and tagged for free and we may have some cycle safety/security items that we can give to the first attendees, while stocks last.