Hi, Sgt Andy Boyd here with your weekly police update.
The Response, Crime and Neighbourhood teams operating out of Newton Aycliffe Police station have been very busy this week dealing with incidents ranging from Harassment and Concerns for Safety, to theft and domestic disputes.
Anti-Social Behaviour remains a priority for the Neighbourhood team and it hasn’t gone unnoticed that there has been a significant rise of it in the town centre. This may be due to a number of factors, but sometimes occurs when action is taken in other areas displacing those causing the issues. We have seen reductions in ASB in every area across the town, apart from the Town Centre area, year to date Newton Aycliffe as a whole has seen a 15% reduction. The team have been working very hard with the County Councillors for Newton Aycliffe and Livin to obtain funding for rapid deployment CCTV cameras on the back of a successful trial in the Western Area. We hope, with Councillor support, that we will be able to purchase three cameras that can be used in areas seeing a sudden rise in ASB to provide us with the evidence we need to identify those responsible and robustly deal with them.
We have also been involved in the execution of a Magistrates Search warrant for drugs in Guthrum Place in the last week and as a consequence a substantial amount of drugs were seized and two people arrested. Enquiries are still taking place in relation to this investigation.
On Saturday 29th January, officers were called to a number of incidents connected to high winds. These included road collisions and blocked roads due to falling trees. We were also called out to flying trampolines and tarpaulin, fortunately no one was seriously hurt, but it was like a scene out of the Wizard of OZ!
On Sunday 30th January, a male youth was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage after windows were smashed on a vehicle in Bell Walk. A further suspect is still outstanding and enquires are ongoing.
On Tuesday 1st February, some of the Neighbourhood Team were in Byerley Park Primary School to deliver presentations on ASB, Crime and Consequences, Bullying and Online Safety. This is part of our commitment to attend all 10 primary schools in Newton Aycliffe, engaging with all year 5 and 6 pupils, attempting to deter them from getting involved in the incidents we are currently seeing in the Town Centre.
Lastly, if you haven’t already and have a spare two minutes, please sign up to ‘Keep in the Know’ where you can receive regular alerts from the team here, on what’s happening around the town, such as crime updates and road closures. It’s completely free and you can sign up by visiting: www.keepintheknow.co.uk/content/pages/sign-up.