Burglary is falling

Last year we saw an increase in house burglary and we knew that we had to do something completely different to keep ahead of the criminals who were travelling into our Hucknall to commit crime.

Hucknall is, as you know, surrounded by a few arterial roads which provide access from other areas and eight of ten house burglaries were being committed by offenders who were not from the district.

With this in mind we secured funding for the ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) shield.

This provided us with a network of these number plate readers on the main roads in and out of Hucknall and the surrounding villages of Annesley, Selston, Jacksdale and Underwood.

The ANPR shield alerts us when active burglars are entering the area and we have officers ready to respond.

Each week we run an operation called ‘Op Packhouse’ which targets the ‘Fatal Four’ which are speeding, driving under the influence of drink or drugs, failing to wear a seatbelt or using their mobile phone at the wheel.

We know that these dangerous acts are the leading cause of road deaths on Nottinghamshire roads.

Since July 2014 we have reported over 400 motorists in this area alone for these offences but that does not mean that they all went to court.

Many of the people we reported are offered driver safety or similar courses to educate them and improve their driving standards and awareness.

At the same time we have arrested over 30 offenders for a variety of offences such as house burglary, drug dealing and domestic assault as a direct result of the new ANPR shield.

As a result Hucknall and the surrounding villages have seen the biggest drop in house burglary recorded in any area for many years and so far it has reduced by over 50 per cent which means 70 less victims of this terribly upsetting crime.

Our effort will not stop and I have already planned an escalation of this operation well into the new year.

Finally, please keep calling us on 101 and let us know if anyone is acting suspiciously as these are vitally important in catching offenders before they actually commit the crime.

Remember, we would rather respond and talk to someone who has a lawful explanation for their actions rather than you risking not calling us at all.

Occasionally, such calls don’t turn out to be criminal acts but please call us and we can investigate.

Our team of volunteers at Hucknall Police Station call back anyone who has rung in a suspicious incident later in the week and provide an update as to what action we took and what we found.

I believe it is really important to let you know what we do with calls you make and our volunteers do this every week.