Policing update from Ch Insp Colin Seaton (From Bucks Free Press)

Policing update from Ch Insp Colin Seaton

2:06pm Thursday 13th September 2012 in News

Policing update from Ch Insp Colin Seaton

WYCOMBE police chief Colin Seaton says his team have made great strides in reducing crime in the district – but says he needs help to catch more burglars.

The Chief Inspector has penned this update on policing in the area:

This is my first of what will hopefully be an interesting series of insights into your local police and what our officers face on a daily basis in their desire to reduce crime, solve crime and keep our communities safe.

I will give you an honest view of all aspects of policing and in doing so I hope that your feedback will help us to provide you with the best possible service.

When I first worked in Wycombe in 1999 for two years at the rank of detective sergeant, having transferred from Slough, I came to a town that had a reputation for being an area of high crime with a violent and unwelcoming town centre.

I am delighted to say that this is no longer the case. Over the past few years crime figures in the area have significantly reduced and High Wycombe has been nationally recognised, winning the National Community Safety Award in 2009 and highlighted as a safe and welcoming town centre by Purple Flag assessors for the last three years.

Wycombe is a great place to work, to live and go out.

Our overarching policing priority is to reduce crime. We work closely with our partners, voluntary organisations and you as the public in order to achieve this.

So far this year, there has been 192 fewer houses burgled than compared with this time last year.

Burglary is a despicable crime and one that can be particularly intrusive and distressing for victims which is why I am particularly keen to keep reducing the number of offences that happen.

This 56 percent reduction in crime, in an area that was already a low crime area, is the best reduction in the whole of Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire.

We remain determined to cut the crimes that are of most concern to you, so if a burglary happens, we try to achieve this by ensuring that our officers and partners are visible and in the right place at the right time.

It is also important to us to continually improve engagement with the community, and so I would encourage you to follow us on Twitter, @TVP_Wycombe and sign up to www.thamesvalleyalert.co.uk to receive daily information about local crimes.

My priority now, as Deputy Area Commander, is to ensure that as well as maintaining these reductions, we also manage to improve our detections, and this is where we really need your help.

We need to catch more burglars! We want to be able to arrest and prosecute the people who are responsible for committing crime in the area.

Most burglars are local and live within the community so we really need you to call us with any suspicious behaviour, or even names. We will follow up every bit of information we receive.

If you do live in the Wycombe District and have previously been a victim of burglary then please don’t think you have been forgotten.

I am personally reviewing every unsolved burglary that has happened in the area over the last few months to see if there is anything more that we can do to try and solve these cases.

Next week, I’ll let you know in more detail how important it is to protect front-line policing and what is involved in a burglary investigation, from when the police receive the call to details of the investigative process, including the roles of forensic crime scene examiners, CID detectives and dedicated investigators.

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