The Molesey, Dittons & Hinchley Wood
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The Molesey, Dittons & Hinchley Wood Neighbourhood Watch Group Chairman – John Haberfield Contact Tel 0208 398 5256 Email [email protected] AUTUMN / WINTER 2018 In this edition: Elmbridge Police changes: Exciting news; our new borough commander introduces himself, his priorities and how he’s bringing welcome improvements to neighbourhood policing. We still need your feedback!: Local residents are an invaluable source of intelligence information. Latest scams: Several new email scams designed to capture your personal and financial details. Crime Map review: We now have 8 months data to compare totals and trends with the previous 3 years. John Haberfield Elmbridge Police: changes in command, priorities and neighbourhood policing Dear NHW members, I am your new Borough Commander for Elmbridge (as at June 2018) and would like to introduce myself. My name is Dallas McDermott and I’ve been with Surrey Police since the 16th August 1999. I’ve never forgotten the date as it was a proud moment in my life and continues to be. I am a career uniformed operational officer and have worked on all Divisions across the Force and live in Surrey (Mole Valley). I have been on Northern Division for the past 4 years as one of the Area Policing Team Inspectors based at Staines overseeing response policing and volume crime investigations. I’m relishing the opportunity that neighbourhood policing brings and I’ll be doing my all to really make a difference to the Community. Part of my ethos is that my officers are fully embedded within the community. With the Policing in Your Neighbourhood (PIYN) model that came into effect in April 2016, we don’t have the same number of specialist neighbourhood officers in post, but despite this, I feel that we have stepped away too much from community events/engagement. This is something that I am keen to remedy and I have therefore encouraged my team to attend community events within the Borough, which includes NHW meetings. I have also recently advertised for a volunteer post at Esher and this is purely about strengthening our links with NHW. The advert closes on the 14th October, then subject to an interview, vetting and training, we will hopefully have someone in place to provide important and regular updates to NHW in the not too distant future, which I know has been missing. Mike Bessent, our Design Out Crime Officer (DOCO), does his best to provide what he can, but with a volunteer in place, this will really improve the service we can offer. I have also allocated wards to all response officers covering Elmbridge (85 plus officers) and they will be getting to know their allocated wards in more detail when out and about. I understand that 3 of the main priorities for NHW on the Borough are unauthorised encampments, burglaries and vehicle crime. We were significantly impacted with UE’s in the summer and had twice as many as any other Borough across Surrey. EBC now have the temporary injunction in place (since August) and this is working very well. This expires on the 9th November, but EBC will be seeking a 3 year injunction on the 8th November. The good news with regards to burglaries in Elmbridge is that they are down almost 20% FYTD. Burglaries are a Force/Divisional priority and I can assure you that we are doing a lot of prevention/detection work in relation to this. We have had some recent good results with 3 individuals being charged with a number of both residential and commercial burglaries on the Borough. Two of these persons are on remand in prison and the other was given strict bail conditions, although this was opposed by Police. We believe they are responsible for other burglaries that we are still trying to link to them. We are also actively seeking several other individuals who are wanted for burglaries on the Borough. Vehicle crime has increased just over 5% FYTD and I have tasked PS Greg TURNER to conduct a full review of this and we will then be putting a plan together to tackle it. Although vehicle crime isn’t down as one of our Force/Divisional priorities, I know that it matters to the local community, hence why I am keen to put a plan in place to target this. This will also include a plea to the community to ensure that their vehicles are always secured. We have specific offenders who will only target unlocked vehicles in order to avoid having to carry articles to use in the commission of an offence and it also lessens their chances of leaving a forensic trace. Strengthening our links with NHW is something that I am determined to do. You are the eyes and ears of our community and I will be putting the value on NHW that it deserves! Dallas McDermott We need your feedback! As a resident, you are most likely to be first to spot anything untoward and best placed to report it. First tell the police…. Help the police keep crime under control; report suspicious incidents as soon as you see them. If you see a crime taking place, or criminals getting away, call 999 and if the police have officers available in the area there’s a chance to catch criminals in the act. If you’re uncertain whether it actually is a crime, don’t feel restrained from calling 999; better safe than sorry, and the police won’t blame you if it turns out to be a false alarm. If it’s ‘after the event’, i.e. discovering a burglary or break-in when the criminals have gone, call 101 to report it (it’s no longer an emergency as there’s no chance of the criminals being caught ‘in the act’). … and then tell Neighbourhood Watch… Please send reports of crimes and suspicious incidents in your locality to Neighbourhood Watch so we can share them with other members. Information about local burglaries, vehicle crime and thefts is extremely valuable, also scams and cons, as it enables residents to be aware of what types of crimes are occurring in or near them, and therefore what sort of precautions to take. So, please report any attempted or actual crimes you learn about in your road or adjacent roads. Please send whatever details you can in an email to me (address at the top of this page) – the road, type of dwelling, and if you know it, how they gained entry, what was taken (cash, jewellery, computers, etc.) and any other useful details. We don’t want victims’ names or actual addresses – it’s where and what happened and how it happened that’s important to learn and pass on. I will collate these and circulate to all our members. John Haberfield Latest scams A variety of fake emails (reported by Action Fraud): The links provided in the emails all lead to phishing websites designed to steal personal and financial details: Fake TV licencing refund offers: claiming to offer refunds, stating that the refund cannot be processed due to “invalid account details”. Fake Netflix emails: claim an issue with your account - click a link to “Update your payment information”. Fake British Gas refund offers: claim your account is in credit - click a link to “Get your refund”. Fake LinkedIn emails: claim your profile appears in multiple searches - click a link to provide details. Always question unsolicited request for your personal or financial information in case it’s a scam. Never automatically click on a link in an unexpected email or text. Crime map review The latest crime data for August has just been published for the 3 police districts covering our NHW region;, so we now have 8 months of data to compare with previous years and to identify trends. Jan-Aug Jan-Aug Jan-Aug Jan-Aug '17 '18 Variance '17 '18 Variance All Crime All Crime % Burglary Burglary % West Molesey 646 620 -4% 57 47 -18% East Molesey & Weston Green 493 560 14% 38 41 8% The Dittons & Hinchley Wood 667 757 13% 97 58 -40% TOTAL 1806 1937 7% 192 146 -24% The table shows the number of all crimes and within that figure the number of burglaries for Jan - Aug this year, compared with the same period last year. Burglary is still much better than last year, but trending upwards (7%) compared to last month. Overall crime figures are also creeping up (2%). For individual police districts, comparing changes in 2018 totals to date with the last update (Jan–Jul), we have: West Molesey: overall crime and burglary trends flat, and still below 2017 levels; East Molesey & Weston Green: overall crime creeping up due to bicycle theft, vehicle crime violence & sexual offences, shoplifting and other theft, and burglary trend up and now above 2017 level; The Dittons & Hinchley Wood: overall crime creeping up; burglary trend flat and still well below 2017 level. The next two charts show annual trends for total crime and, within that, the number of burglaries. The trend for total crimes increased in August, tracking above previous levels and due to increases in violence & sexual offences, shoplifting, vehicle crime, public order, bicycle theft, other theft, and robbery. Burglaries are still much lower in total for the year to date. Although August is at the highest level for 3 years, Elmbridge police report only 9 burglaries for September, a great improvement. Finally, variance in crime types, comparing Jan - Aug ‘17 with ‘18. Burglary has decreased dramatically, and criminal damage & arson and anti-social behaviour offences have reduced (although burglary and ASB have increasing trends), but overall numbers have been offset by increases in violence & sexual offences, shoplifting, other theft, public order and vehicle crime.