Cllr Ros Hathorn managed to arrange a meeting with our community police officers PCs Smit and Bujar. It was a helpful meeting. After a summer characterised by absences and disruption with police officers sent all over the country to incidents such as hotel protests it was good to touch base with our local team.

Communication has not been great and this was an opportunity to reset things. The meeting took place at Histon and Impington Parish Council offices with a member of the public, Parish Council Chair Yvonne Murray and Cllr Ros Hathorn. We discussed Histon, Impington and Orchard Park.

Communication: Ros raised concerns that people are not getting responses to reports made to the police. Police advised that if you’re a victim of crime you should get a response.   At the very least updates every 28 days, there are alerts on their systems and this is a key target which managers pick up on. If you are not getting these reports you can raise this by calling 101 or online with your crime reference. If you feel your case has been dropped or you are not getting a response councillors can attempt to advocate for you.

If you make a report as a witness (which we are all encouraged to do) you probably won’t get a response. The police will only get in touch if they need a statement or further information.

Crime and anti social behaviour on Histon High Street: We raised this as an issue and there are patrol plans in place for anti social behaviour.   They are aware of the issues and have been in conversation with some local businesses. That said a lot more reports of anti social behaviour are coming in for Orchard Park and this continues to be a priority area for them. Further work is taking place across agencies including the district council to address the issues in Orchard Park.

Local visibility: The officers pointed out that they are a very small team who cover 127 villages in South Cambs.  Sometimes police are visible and sometimes they are just in black vest ie less obvious. A month ago they were patrolling on the Guided busway, came across a drug deal and were able to arrest the offenders. 

Levels of crime and anti social behaviour: They had looked at the data and there aren’t a lot of reports for Histon and Impington compared to other places.   The Crimestoppers data goes to the police but not necessarily the community team but even taking that into consideration there are other places with bigger issues. There are noticeably more reports for Orchard Park.

E scooters: are a continuous battle as the police cannot chase them. If they can get pictures and an evidence chain they can seize vehicles.

Drugs and the smell of drugs: Report issues to housing officers.  Housing can take property away from people by issuing tenancy warnings if the conditions of the tenancy have been broken. It is far harder for the police to enforce this.  Housing have the most effective powers in terms of controlling drug use.  The police have done drug visits with the officer from Clarion in Kings Meadow.  

Cambridgeshire is one of the lowest funded forces nationally. 

Neigbourhood Watch: We asked does neighbourhood watch help?   It’s worked well in Foxton but it requires the community to come together.   The Neighbourhood watch coordinator had very good links with the PCSO there. They managed to take serious a drug dealer to gaol.

Neighbourhood watch could be a street watching out for one another or could be community wide or run across parts of the community ie a major road plus side streets. Get in touch with the parish council or local councillors if you’re interested we could set up a community meeting.

Quick wins: Some of the dialogue is a bit lacking for instance the police would like to know what youth work is around to direct young people accordingly. Also they can issue behaviour contracts.  The Police and Crime commissioner is keen for Histon and Impington to invest in youth work but is not proactively offering advice as to how to target that work most effectively. We can try to pick that up as councillors but it is up to the office of the Police and Crime Commissioner to make that happen.