Wrexham Police Activity Update by Inspector Luke Hughes, Wrexham Town Police Station
In the first of a regular series, Inspector Luke Hughes provides us with a snapshot of the current police activities in and around the town centre.
Brief Background
Wrexham Town District Inspector
Firstly, let me state that I am no stranger to Wrexham. I started my career in our now-demolished tower back in October 2000. Thereafter I had the pleasure of working in the town until 2007 in various roles, including three years as the Caia Park Community Beat Manager.
A New Neigbourhood Policing Sergeant
I have implemented a staff reshuffle and we welcome a new Neighbourhood Policing Sergeant to the team, PS Kelly Lewis. Kelly will work alongside PS Simon Williams coordinating our neighbourhood teams.
PS Williams is responsible for Wrexham Town Centre, Esclusham and Offa. PS Lewis will coordinate the areas of Caia Park, Stansty, Grosvenor, Acton and Borras.
Simon and Kelly have a team of officers associated with each ward cluster and I’m hopeful that you already have their contact numbers and names. Please feel free to contact the officers to discuss local concerns, however, not to report crime:
Offa and Esclusham: 01978 834 302 or offasectorwrexham@nthwales.pnn.police.uk
Acton: 01978 834 303 or actonsectorwrexham@nthwales.pnn.police.uk
Rhosddu: 01978 834 304 or rhosddugardenvillage@nthwales.pnn.police.uk
Caia Park: 01978 834 305 or caiasectorwrexhamtow@nthwales.pnn.police.uk
Town Centre: 01978 834 306 or towncentresectorwrex@nthwales.pnn.police.uk
I have introduced a new proactive team whose primary role is the local disruption of any emerging crime trends. This work is certainly something that I will be investing heavily in as we move forwards. I would encourage all members of the community to report criminality confidentially either directly to North Wales Police or via crimestoppers-uk.org.
Crime Statistics
Should you want detailed information on your local area, I would suggest a review of police.uk/pu/your-area/north-wales-police. This is the official Home Office site that has figures for our local and national crime data, detection rates, stop search and ASB figures.
Drugs/Knife Crime
With some recent high profile operations, I’m especially pleased to report that we have had a significant impact on the local supply of drugs. Stop Search remains an effective tool to address drug and knife crime several recent events have served to highlight this.
We find ourselves in a strange period in terms of crime reporting/statistics. Throughout my time in the police, I have noticed increased scrutiny in terms of crime and associated reductions and detections. To date, we have seen a clear REDUCTION in crime when we compare year-on-year data. In fact, at the time of writing, we are almost one thousand crimes down on the same period last year, equating to a 16.2% reduction. Some of this is undoubtedly due to some superb police work, however, I have to concede that some is the effect of Covid limiting the ability of offenders to commit crime.
Rogue Traders
Rogue Traders are generally a spring/summer trend, but we have seen a slight increase in door-to-door canvassing/rogue trading offences. Significantly, we find quite often that these are a precursor to more serious offending, including distraction thefts and burglaries. More often than not, the offenders targeting the most vulnerable members of our community and having committed an initial offence will periodically re-attend to exploit them for further unnecessary work. Acton is currently a hot spot and I would urge the community to be aware of any such activity and report persons, vehicles seen acting suspiciously.
Crime Prevention
Can I ask that consideration also be given to CCTV (including doorbell cameras), improved exterior lighting and timed interior lighting? Opportunist offenders often commit the vast majority of offences. They don’t want you to see, hear or disturb them. Make their lives harder and consequently remove the ease with which they can commit crime.
Operation Snap/Speeding
Speeding affects every community and is something that always generates great debate on any social media platform. Sadly, it’s one of the issues I will never be able to resolve for you. Indeed even if I dedicated my entire district staffing, people would still speed and people would still complain about it. Wrong place, wrong time, wrong weather, etc. Therefore, whether we like it or not, speed vans are the most cost-efficient solution on our most affected routes. However, there are two initiatives that the community can do to assist in this issue.
Community Speed Watch
Community Speed Watch is a locally-led response to speeding concerns. Go to gosafe.org/community-speed-watch
Op Snap is concerned with dashcam uploads when witnessing offences. Go to gosafesnap.wales
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