The new head of policing in the centre of Nottingham has warned there are no quick fixes to the 'biggest problem' of antisocial behaviour. Inspector Ben Lawrence, the newly appointed head of the City Central district, has outlined his aims and priorities after taking up the job of overseeing Berridge, Radford & Park, Hyson Green & Arboretum and Wollaton East & Lenton Abbey in September.
The former Royal Air Force officer joined Nottinghamshire Police in 2019. He has spent the past three years heading up the area’s response policing teams, dealing with 999 incidents.
Inspector Lawrence said his team’s priorities were to tackle serious violence, antisocial behaviour and burglary. The 40-year-old said: "The impact of serious violence is huge, so that is our obvious first priority. Fortunately we do not have that sort of violence here often.
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"The biggest problem that I hear about from people in the community is antisocial behaviour. That's a wide ranging offence, which could be anything from a dog that won't stop barking, a party getting out of hand, or drug use in the streets.
"It can be difficult from a policing standpoint to tell people that there is no quick way to fix some antisocial behaviour. We can make some changes and make one or two arrests but that doesn't make things go away.
"That's why it's important we work with partners like framework in neighbourhood policing. Otherwise you just end up dealing with the same problem and people aren't happy."
His team is made up of four sergeants, 20 police constables and 15 PCSOs. Inspector Lawrence added his team would have to be aware not only of what their community wanted but the affect of economic downturn on crime.
Inspector Lawrence added: "We have to staying working at things until its fixed. After Covid we are trying to get the visuality of having that local police presence.
"People always tell me they want to see police officers around, and that influence is very important to us. With any sort of economic down turn you will see a rise in crime but it does not mean people should worry about seeing large spikes in crime affecting them.
"Neighbourhood policing is about dealing with issues and then having support in place to prevent those from happening. I worked in London before working here and we need to be aware of the diverse community.
"For example having the awareness of different religious holidays and cultural differences is important. We need to be sensitive as well as fair and transparent."
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