Rochdale police column: Links with community are vital

PC Lucas McGregor, of the Rochdale East Neighbourhood Policing Team, on what the police are doing to tackle local issues across the borough.

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Neighbourhood policing is one of the oldest and in my opinion remains one of the most important aspects of policing. My role as the Wardle and Littleborough Neighbourhood Beat Officer (NBO), alongside a team of PCSOs, is to build and develop co-operation within our communities in order to solve long-term problems and prevent crime.

We are part of the community, just like GPs, midwives, teachers and shopkeepers and we do care deeply about the area and its people, even if the wider feeling of the police nationally is that we are out of touch.

At the start of every shift I look at all the incidents that have occurred in my area. When there is a pattern that appears to be emerging it allows us to predict where offenders will target next and what response is needed to tackle this. For example, calls informing us of suspicious activity, such as looking through car windows at strange times of night, allowed the neighbourhood team to gather intelligence, CCTV and to ultimately identify the offenders. It is small snippets of information like that, that helped us put away the gang of burglars that were stealing vehicles across the Pennines.

If you call us or provide information you help our investigations, even if you do not get an official response from us. We can be poor at responding to people and keeping them updated, and this is something we are acutely aware of. Sometimes that lack of contact is down to being busy dealing with other incidents including high risk missing people, child exploitation, or serious assaults. We are trying to improve our updates but it is a work in progress.

There is always a balance to be struck between concentrating on the neighbourhood issues that matter to the villages of Wardle and Littleborough and my wider responsibility as a police officer. The past month has been a prime example of those pressures; a man was killed in Newbold, there was disorder relating to European Elections in Oldham and violent disorder in Glodwick which left a young male in critical condition. All of these incidents required a large response, and all of them required Rochdale neighbourhood officers to be abstracted from their beats to play a part in that response. These incidents also don’t stop on the night that they occurred. They require a long and detailed investigation afterwards, requiring a lot of resources which includes frontline police officers carrying out door to door enquiries, CCTV enquiries, and scene guards.

'Why bother calling the police, they never do anything... I have called and reported it before and never heard anything...' - These are common refrains and I understand the feeling. However, all information provided by the community is used and gives us an understanding of what is happening in the area. For example one of the issues regularly being raised at community meetings is off-road bikes. The police share your frustrations when it comes to people driving anti-socially and causing problems on the roads and country side and I see every call and report that relates to the issue. Currently I am bidding for GMP’s off-road bike team to come out and tackle the problem. I will in also be speaking to the businesses that own the land where the bikes are often used on to see what they can do to help reduce the problem. However, this piece of work relies heavily on having the evidence to show that the problem exists. The bidding process is competitive as with limited resources, we will only receive the additional support if I can prove that we need them more than other areas of Greater Manchester.

I know many people feel disappointed because we don’t respond immediately when issues such as anti-social driving is called in. However, that does not mean the problem is being ignored. Sometimes solutions can take time and the first few attempts do not work, but we do not give up.

I do this job to try and make a difference to the community. If I can make small improvements to the community every shift then I feel I am doing what the people of Wardle and Littleborough would want from me. So as well as trying to solve problems, I also try and get involved in positive activity. Over the last month I have also been working alongside partners in the local community on a project together with Littleborough Boxing Club. We have agreed to trial a new diversionary scheme with young people who may lack structure in their lives, and be unable to afford activities such as boxing being funded to do weekly lessons at the club. This funding comes not from the tax payer, but from proceeds of crime seized over the past year from criminals. Therefore not only does this aim to reduce possible offending and anti-social behaviour, but brings money back into our community that was taken from us by criminals.

This week I have also been out with Rochdale Council Enforcement Officers. We have visited local shops suspected of being involved in criminality such as dealing drugs to vulnerable individuals. We also executed a warrant at a premises that was suspected of criminally exploiting children. Unfortunately issues like modern slavery and human trafficking are very real issues and do exist in the Pennines. The exploitation of our community’s most vulnerable is one of the most abhorrent issues that need to be tackled. The desire to try and protect vulnerable members of society is what drew me to neighbourhood policing in the first place and it is only as a community that we can do this.

I do my best in amongst this work to also spend time on foot in the community, and speak to residents and gather information on what is happening, but this is only a limited insight in to what is going on. The community are so important to giving us a proper understanding as to what is happening, and here's why - you, as an individual, know if something is not right in your area. You know when something is out of the ordinary. Maybe you say to your partner or a work colleague 'I saw something really odd this morning...' or similar, but you think to yourself that if it were an issue then you are sure somebody would have reported it already. The truth is that they probably have not.

If in doubt then please tell us - you can call 101, or use the online live chat on the GMP website to pass us your concerns. If I had unlimited space to write, I would give examples from other forces where 'odd' behaviour reported by the community has led to terrorist plots being stopped, and vulnerable people being saved. So maybe it is nothing... but what if it isn't?

This is why our links with you are vital. We all have a stake in Wardle and Littleborough’s future. It is a great and safe place to live and work, but we need to work together to keep it that way and to continue to tackle criminality and exploitation together.

Lastly, it would be wrong to write a column about being an NBO without mentioning the invaluable contribution that PCSOs make to our community. The PCSOs covering Wardle and Littleborough work tirelessly and often go above and beyond what is expected of them in their role. Unfortunately they often receive abusive comments from the few less-than-upstanding members of the community; such abuse comes from a misinformed mind and is not constructive in making a difference. Last week, a Castleton PCSO received a tirade of verbal abuse whilst doing legitimate enquiries. The abuser then decided he would drive off and deliberately struck her with his vehicle. Luckily she was largely unharmed aside from some bruises; however the CCTV shows how terrifying the incident was and how much worse it could have been. When I start my shift I carry a baton and CS gas, and many cops now carry Tasers. PCSOs go out into their communities, often by themselves, without any of this equipment, for the sole purpose of supporting you. When you see them, please give them your support.