Policing Minister to visit Bristol

Policing Minister to visit Bristol

LONDON. March 17, 2008/3mnewswire.org/ -- One of Bristol's Safer Stronger Neighbourhoods police teams will receive a visit from Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker on Monday 17 March.

He will visit the Ashley neighbourhood team in the Trinity area of Bristol, who have been busy making that area of Bristol a safer place to be for all of its residents. There he will meet Rick Palmer the Head of Community Strategy and Drug Strategy at Safer Bristol and some community representatives.

On his visit Mr Coaker will also meet with Assistant Chief Constable Steve Mortimore, District Commander of Bristol, Chief Superintendent John Long and Chief Inspector Andy Bennett.

Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker said:

"The work of the Ashley Safer Stronger Neighbourhoods team in the Trinity area of Bristol brilliantly demonstrates the work being undertaken by Neighbourhood Policing and Safer Neighbourhood teams throughout the country.

"The community engagement work undertaken by them builds confidence and reassurance in communities and forges valuable relationships with local people, enabling the team to involve them in agreeing local policing priorities.

"The excellent progress made by established teams such as this one now needs to be mainstreamed into core policing throughout England and Wales and we are in the process of ensuring every community has a Neighbourhood Policing team in place by April 2008.

"Neighbourhood Policing is central to making the police service more citizen focused. It is an integral part of the future of policing and it is what people want."

District Commander of Bristol, Chief Superintendent John Long said:

"I am delighted to welcome Vernon Coaker to Bristol to show him what we have achieved in terms of Neighbourhood Policing.

"We will take him out and about in the city so he can see one of our Safer Stronger Neighbourhoods Teams in action, making the streets of Bristol safer places to be for residents, and help him understand how our staff have achieved this.

"The Trinity area of Bristol was the first to pilot neighbourhood policing in the force area three years ago and it has been a real success.

"Our 18 neighbourhood teams in Bristol are now well established and provide a visible, accessible and accountable police presence in the community. They are all working hard to engage with our communities and we hope that the Minister's visit will further encourage the public to engage with our local teams."

The Ashley neighbourhood team works closely with partnership agencies, such as the St Paul's Unlimited Community Partnership, Bristol City Council and Safer Bristol, the Crime and Drugs Strategy Partnership for Bristol. Together they have implemented a number of improvements and initiatives, which include:

* Crackhouse and 'trouble property' closures (Since 2004 there have been five closed in St Paul's and a further eight closed in the wider Trinity area and over 60 in Bristol as a whole. In 2004 the Home Office hailed Bristol as a national example of good practice for its closure of the Black and White Cafe in St Paul's in June 2004. Bristol leads the way in terms of good practice and is second only to London for the numbers of closure orders obtained for authorities.)

* A significant reduction in Class A drug dealing on the streets in the area compared to six years ago

* The opening of Newfoundland Road police station in December 2006 on the edge of St Paul's, allowing the neighbourhood team to be located in the area they police

* Street lighting improvements

* Quick removal of graffiti

* Tackling anti-social behaviour through dispersal orders and youth engagement, for example: organising five-a-side football tournaments and boxing for local youths as diversionary tactics during school holidays

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