‘Supercops’ help slash crime rate (From This Is Lancashire)

‘Supercops’ help slash crime rate

5:20pm Saturday 13th March 2010 in

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SUPERCOPS working in a Bolton neighbourhood have slashed crime by 90 per cent in just two years.

Targeting of persistent and career criminals has led to the fall, say the award-winning officers of the Deane and Willows Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT).

Sgt Rob Knight, who leads the Deane and Willows NPT, said: “The main thing we have done is identified and targeted the people that matter. There is a small amount of people responsible for most of the crime and we have relentlessly targeted those people, either sending them back to prison, making sure they abide by court imposed curfews or helping them successfully re-integrate into society.”

Sgt Knight, who last month won the outstanding leadership accolade at the Chief Constable’s Excellence Awards, said he believed it was the steps the NPT was taking that was driving the cuts in crime.

He added: “We are still working hard and we want to see further reductions and we will now begin focusing our efforts on anti-social behaviour issues.”

Also working for the team is GMP’s Community Beat Officer of the Year, PC Bob Varley, who is so well regarded that criminals have even asked to be arrested by him.

The team saw huge cuts in crime in the first two months of this year, compared to the same period over the previous two years.

Burglaries are down 90 per cent, with only four reported this year compared to 33 last year and 40 in 2008. Theft from motor vehicles is down 88 per cent with 11 reported this year, compared to 32 last year and 91 in 2008.

Robberies were cut by 60 per cent with four reported incidents in January and February, compared to seven in the same two months last year and five in 2008.

As reported in The Bolton News last year confidence in the police in the Deaneand Willows area soared thanks to email updates which Sgt Knight sends to residents about his team’s work.

l If you live or work in the Deane and Willows area and would like to be included on Sgt Knight’s mailing list then email: bolton.neighbourhood team@gmp.police.uk