THIS NEWSLETTER IS PREPARED BY POLICE OFFICERS AND POLICE COMMUNITY SUPPORT OFFICERS BASED AT EASTSIDE IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE NATIONAL PROBATION SERVICE AND THE CROWN PROSECUTION SERVICE. Crime has again dropped from the previous month and overall crime for the year continues to fall including dwelling burglaries, violent crime and auto crime, detections continue to significantly exceed the targets set for the year. There has been a 20% decrease in recorded crime over the past 9 months whilst a 10% improvement in the detection rate. To find your local officer and see what they have been doing visit: Birchgrove Boy wins Prestigous Prize Birchgrove Comprehensive pupil, Ian Rogers has become the second pupil from his school to win the prestigious ‘Gordon Whitcombe Memorial Shield.’ The prize is awarded to outstanding young brass players annually by the staff of the County Music Service and was previously won by Ceri Evans, another Birchgrove cornet player, who is currently studying Medicine in Cardiff. Ian is taught by Mr Keith Rees of the County Music Service and is a member of the Birchgrove Comprehensive School Wind Band and Orchestra. WELL DONE IAN!! KEEPING EASTSIDE SAFE CADW EASTSIDE YN DIOGEL DATE: DECEMBER 2009 KEEPING SOUTH WALES SAFE ‘Santa’s Little Helper’s’ Community Project On the evening of Tuesday 15th December 2009, PC Chris Taylor and PCSO Phil Williams assisted in ‘Santa’s Little Helpers’ Hamper Community Project in Birchgrove. 20 hampers were delivered to the elderly and/or in need within Birchgrove with the assistance of Ryland Phillips and a number of youths from Birchgrove Youth Club. The girls from Youth Club assisted with “blinging up” the panda car and decorating it with Christmas decorations – VERY FESTIVE!! A massive Thankyou to everyone who took part in the Project from South Wales Police. Also a number of residents from Birchgrove would like to give their thanks to the Youth Club and Ryland for organising the event. Residents felt that the Youth of Birchgrove weren’t praised enough for the good work which they do!! Bonymaen NPT & Road Safety PCSO’s Natalie Jones and James O’Neale along with Bonymaen Communities First and pupils from Cefn Hengoed Comprehensive School all went to Caernarfon in North Wales for the Annual Road Safety Awards Ceremony. Communities First and pupils from schools over the area attended the awards after winning their regional competitions in highlighting the dangers of road safety. Bonymaen were successful in winning a national award at the event for their entry. A lot of hard work was put into the making of the DVD in relation to road safety by all involved; and that hard work was recognised by winning a £500 cheque!! WELL DONE TO EVERYONE INVOLVED!! St Thomas – Cuppa with a Copper The Cuppa with a Coppa Scheme will be running weekly, in St Thomas Library from week commencing 14th January 2010. For further information, please contact the Local Neighbourhood Team or the Staff at the Library. We hope to see you all there! Please view our bobby.com for all other Ward surgeries and opportunities to meet your local officers. Cefn Hengoed Annual Awards Cefn Hengoed Community School held its Annual Presentation Evening and Carol Service at the Brangwyn Hall in December. Awards were presented across all year groups to recognise achievement and endeavour in academic year 2008-09. Last year’s Year 11 returned to receive Major Awards and GCSE certificates in the presence of staff, families, Governors, representatives of community groups including PC Tony Davies, PCSOs Natalie Jones and Steve Lewis, and friends of the school. Pupils provided an enjoyable evening of music and singing to accompany the event. Keynote speakers were Chair of Governors Cllr Mair Gibbs and Vice-Chair Professor Ken Jones. The evening was a wonderful celebration of the outstanding achievements of pupils in the area at Cefn Hengoed School. Police Horses in Llansamlet On the 30th November, the Police horses visited Talycoppa Primary School in Llansamlet. The children and teachers were more than happy to have them visit; and the children got a chance to get up close to the horses and ask their riders any questions! A good day was had by all! South Wales Police’ Mounted Section have been working closely with Eastside NPT, and over the past few weeks have attended most wards within the Sector, with dates arranged to be visiting the other wards. The public have been more than happy to see them patrolling around the Enterprise Zone (also visiting Wyevale Garden Centre on their travels!), Llansamlet, Birchgrove and Bonymaen, and it has given them the chance to speak with Officers on a different level!! Eastside NPT hope to continue working closely with the Mounted Section during 2010 and beyond! Drug Warrants – Eastside Officers within Eastide have executed several drug warrants across the sector over the past few weeks. A number of arrests have been made along with a number of drug and cash seizures. This has re-emphasised local officers’ commitment in dealing with the dealers of Class ‘A’ drugs in the area ensuring the streets of Eastside are a safer place for all. In total 12 persons have been brought to justice within the sector in relation to drug related offences over the past month. If anyone has any information regarding drugs in their community they can call the Police non- emergency number 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Arrests Llansamlet Following a sharp increase in auto crime in the Llansamlet area during early December officers mounted an operation with increased plain cloth patrols during the early hours. As a result of these patrols 2 local males were arrested. Since these arrests a number of warrants have been executed targeting known handlers of stolen goods – these warrants will continue. Subsequently a number of stolen items have been recovered. Since these arrests crime in the area has dropped significantly. The information that led to these arrests came direct from the local community. Local officers would like to thank the community for their continued support. Eastside NPT would like to wish you all a ……. Performance The month of December has again showed decreases in recorded crime across the sector. There has been a decrease in overall crime every month for the past 10 months when comparing with a like for like basis with last year. In total there have been 372 LESS crimes so far this fiscal year, in real terms this equates to over 40 LESS recorded crimes per month giving approximately a 20% decrease in recorded crime. Despite recorded crime being cut there have been 68 MORE crimes detected which is very positive news. In real terms there have been: 66 LESS Assaults with Injury. 115 LESS burglaries of all classifications. 85 LESS auto crime offences. 7 LESS sexual assualts. 31 LESS offences of criminal damage. 32 MORE drug offences DETECTED. 35 MORE burglary dwelling crimes DETECTED. An overall increase of 10% in crime DETECTION RATES. Anti Social Behaviour (ASB) Update Local officers have again put a lot of effort into targeting anti social behaviour and the minority of persons effecting the quality of life of residents in our Wards. St Thomas has seen a reduction in anti social behaviour as well as Birchgrove. The Bonymaen Ward has also seen decreases in anti social behaviour. Also of note is the fact youths in the Bonymaen Ward who have previously caused problems are now firmly within the ASB referral system at varying stages and are being effectively managed. One of the youths is in the process of going through the juidicial system where a full anti social behaviour order Is being sought by partner agencies within the Safer Swansea Partnership. Further updates will follow soon. Llansamlet has also seen reductions in anti social behaviour with all usual hot spots around our parks being generally quiet. COMMUNITY PAYBACK Offenders positively repaying communities South Wales Probation Trust is the lead organisation in ensuring that offenders are appropriately punished within the community. The Swansea Community Payback Unit supervises approximately 400 offenders per week who carry out unpaid work within their communities as punished for their offences. Being accountable and visible to the public Decemberr 2008 saw the launch of a national initiative to increase public confidence in community based punishments by making work carried out more visible. Offenders are now requires to wear Hi-Visibility vests with the words Community Payback written on the back of the garment. Latest information shows that public awareness of punishment via Community Payback has increased from 49% in December 2008 to 74% in April 2009. This is a real indication of increased awareness of punishment within the community and public confidence. In August 2009 Swansea Offenders completed 5267 hours of work across the city and county, which equates to a value of £31,602 of free work to benefit Swansea communities. Teams of offenders maintaining clearing brush from around footpaths Beneficiary Survey 2008/09 Beneficiaries’ perceptions of the benefits to the community of Unpaid Work are overwhelmingly positive- beneficiaries typically feel that the quality of work undertaken by offenders is to a high standard (94%) and 93% of beneficiaries think that the community has benefited from the work done. To view this survey in full please visit our Community Payback pages at: www.probation- southwales.gov.uk What Beneficiaries of Community Payback said about the work offenders did via recent testimonial letters Local Rubbish Clean-up: “Your supervisor and his team cleared up vast ammounts of rubbish. On Thursday they filled a whole skip and returned on Friday and again collected a vast ammount of litter”. Charlotte Lancey Communities First Single mother in need of support: “They have done an amazing job. The garden is 100 times better, the resident and her little one can now go out there and enjoy”. Kimberley Hillman Coordinator – Women’s Aid Tai Esgyn Housing Association: “Commenting on painting projects to assist redidents with special needs, “The partnership between ourselves and Probation is invaluable”. Simon Rogers Operations Manager MAKING A VISIBLE DIFFERENCE IN YOUR COMMUNITY Community Payback : What offenders had to say recently about working in the community on completion of orders: • “I feel that my time on Community Payback has taught me a good lesson of not getting involved in any trouble again. Even though Community Payback has been inconvenient for my family life I feel that I have learned some new skills with my time making benches and tables for schools working in the workshop”. LH. • “Although I didn’t enjoy getting up early on a Sunday morning, when I was at Community Payback I did enjoy the work and knowing I was putting something back into the community”. SC. • “I enjoyed meeting people”. RD. • “I am not coming back”. KS. • “I’m giving back to the community and was very happy working with my supervisor. Glad to get the order out of the way and I’m sure I will stick to the law in future”. DL. • “When I was sentenced to 100 hours community work I thought it was totally out of my character to do. Having now finished the hours I do realise that in my opinion community payback has made me think more about the crime committed than what a fine would have done”. KH • “I enjoyed working with the disabled children helping them around the assault course best. The Supervisors were good to me. LO, commenting on a supervised project at an event working with disabled children”. ET Crown Prosecution Service Update Crown Prosecution Service Update Forthcoming developments Further national and local initiatives to provide assurance to the public that offenders are being appropriately punished within the community are continuing. From 1 st October 2009 any offender who is convicted of any offence and is sentenced to a Community Order with an Unpaid Work requirement of more than 200 hours will attend Community Payback and work 3 times per week on projects in your area. Look for the orange Community Payback jackets. In November, offenders will be participating in OPERATION BANG – a Community Safety Partnership initiative involving the Police, Fire Service, Probation Service, and Swansea City Council. Offenders will be removing illegal and dangerous bonfires. See local press and other media for details. At local PACT meetings Police and Safer Swansea representatives are now publicising information to residents about how Community Payback teams can provide different types of work in your areas. Engage with them. Thank you for taking the time to read this To refer a project please ‘post a project’ at www.probation-southwales.gov.uk or telephone Simon Morse-Jones, Placement Officer, on 07717 766199 Swansea offender participating in a recent Community Payback litter pick This information is provided by the Community Prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, Swansea, working as part of the Prosecution Team and sentencing disposals verified with the Magistrates’ Court register. PACT Meetings Ward Venue Date Time St Thomas / Port Tennant St Thomas School 15th February 2010 7.00pm Bonymaen Cwm Primary School 9th February 2010 6.30pm Trallwn / Llansamlet Trallwn Community Centre 27th January 2010 6.00pm Birchgrove Birchgrove Community Centre 16th February 2010 7.00pm Enterprise Zone Ramada Jarvis 7th January 2010 2.00pm MAKING EVERY CONTACT COUNT Please visit ourBobby.com for further information regarding local policing in your community. Should you require this document in Welsh please submit your request to: swansea@south-wales.pnn.police.uk