The Newark and Sherwood District Commander of Nottinghamshire Police has shared key messages for the upcoming year. Inspector Matthew Ward has also looked back on key successes for the team this year as well as goals for the year.
Inspector Ward described the work by officers in his team over the past year as "fantastic" and is proud of everything that has been achieved, such as a drop in motor vehicle crime and the 'OP Legacy Work' conducted by officers. This type of work involves officers being "proactive" by communicating with low level offenders to help deter them from committing further crimes.
The way in which this is done is determined on a case by case basis depending on the individual. When asked about the effect this was having, he replied: "It's definitely had a positive impact."
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Speaking of 2022, Inspector Ward explained he feels things are "going really well" across Newark and Sherwood for the police. He said: "I think we have had a lot of new staff in the last couple years who joined us in a period of Covid when the type of work and pace of work was not what it has been and they are adapting to that change in pace that comes after the Covid period really, really well.
"The majority of stats are going in the direction that I would like to see and the ones that are not are things to keep working on, it's been a really good effort. Theft from motor vehicle is the lowest its been."
He explained that whilst there had been 350 cases of theft from motor vehicles in 2019, this dropped to 254 and 230 during the pandemic years, and there has now been 191 during 2022. Inspector Ward described it as "a really significant drop."
When asked about goals for 2023, Inspector Ward stated the force would continue to work on their top three priorities, which includes anti-social behaviour, shoplifting, and violence against women and girls.
Regarding shoplifting, Inspector Ward stated that he wanted to have all of his beat managers geographically based once there were high enough levels of staff, as it will allow the team to have someone responsible for each area working with the shops to prevent shoplifting and target repeat offenders. He added: "Shoplifting is definitely improving but there is still that bit of work left to do.
"I bet what we start to see in January is shoplifting falls below the trend for the last two-three years." He added that as one of the main towns, Newark is spoken about a lot but there is a lot of great work being done in other areas and towns, such as Sherwood, Southwell and Ollerton.
He added that the road crime team has also been doing well, and that there has been some "good team work" across the force. Inspector Ward explained the force would be continuing to work on Operation Epson next year, which is tackling the illegal and anti-social use of off road motorbikes.
He said: "We are trying to build up an intelligence picture of where the bikes are being stored and taken back to, so that we can disrupt them by going to those locations and confiscating bikes and taking that approach. But that takes time to build up that intelligence picture. We need people to report more stuff to us and inform us of more things."
There are a number of major roads that pass through the district and connect to Newark, including the A1, A46, A17 and the A617. Inspector Ward explained that due to these roads, a significant number of people pass through Newark every day, but the ANPR cameras in the town have been "very affective."
However, he added that there are a number of rural roads near the villages that are becoming concerning, and for many of the villages itself, there are community watch groups being set up. These groups receive training on what to do, and then meet on a quarterly basis to report to the police where the biggest risks are for that area.
The community groups can also help officers "track the activity in the greatest risk places" by also noting the particular times and days they witness things.
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