Cumbria’s crime commissioner has said that law enforcement works better when residents have their say.
This weekend saw police act on concerns raised to them by residents about vehicle anti-social behaviour.
Eden police carried out 30 vehicle stops in the area, arresting one and taking traffic offence reports for five others.
They were acting on concerns raised through the Local Focus Hub. The hubs hold meetings across the county with representatives of police and partner agencies, including elected politicians.
Attendees raise concerns about crime and anti-social behaviour on residents’ behalf.
Police and crime commissioner Peter McCall said focus hubs played a vital role in law enforcement, and that anti-social behaviour was an issue raised time and again.
He said: “We do get comments all the time often about relatively low level anti-social behaviour, but it’s really irritating and can lead to more serious crime.”
He added that it was crucial the public spoke to the police.
He said: “If you report something in it will always be taken seriously. You won’t necessarily see blue lights flashing instantly for that report but it builds up the local picture.
“That’s the key message – work with the police, the police are not the enemy and I won’t pretend for a second that the police can do everything.”
Mr McCall said that addressing issues like anti-social behaviour should be a community effort.
He said: “Businesses can help on anti-social driving for example, making it difficult to access car parks. Every one can help on this thing and it’s a community effort.”
Mr McCall added that vehicle anti-social behaviour was an ongoing issue.
“It crops up every year, we deal with it and it’s almost a generational thing because every year there’s a new crop of drivers. It tends to focus around supermarket car parks where often it’s younger drivers who get together, they’re playing loud music, they’ve often tweaked the exhaust,” he added.
He said that tackling the issue could often be as simple as explaining to young people how their behaviour was being perceived by the general public.
Efforts to tackle vehicle anti-social behaviour, following reports from the public, led to police arresting a drink driver.
The situation could have led to a fatality if left unchecked as the drink driver ran a red light and hit the kerb multiple times before being stopped. He was on his way to buy more alcohol.
In an emergency people are urged to always call 999 but to report a crime that does not require an immediate blue lights response, call 101.
