Knife crime and burglaries: concerns in Amersham

Knife crime, burglaries and anti-social behaviour, these just some of the worries people have in Amersham and Chesham.

But, police in the area have now put measures in place to tackle these crimes. 

'You said; we did'

Anti-social behaviour seemed to be a problem at multi-storey car parks and now there's a protection order in place across Amersham, Chesham, Great Missenden and Prestwood.

20 public car parks are now covered by a new Public Spaces Protection Order that prohibits people from causing noise or behaving in a way that would cause nuisance or annoyance to a member of the public. 

This will allow the police to deal with this type of crime more effectively. 

Burglaries have also been a worry, but an Operation Stronghold team has been created to tackle burglars and bring them to justice.

Officers worked together on Operation Garland an ANPR operation, which resulted in the disruption of an international organised crime group with 6 arrests for a series of burglaries.

The Neighbourhood Team have also been safeguarding victims of burglaries visiting them and carrying out crime surveys to target harden their premises.

Members of the public were also concerned about knife crime.

This is something officers continue to deal with and they now have a designated schools officer, PC Claire Annison, who works with the Neighbourhood Teams and local secondary schools.

They have been able to install knife arches in schools to detect and deter this type of crime, which there has been a positive response too.

Police will also be looking to utilise drug dogs in schools to deter drugs being brought into schools.

The new ‘You said we did’ (Community priorities), for the next quarter will be:

• Anti-social behaviour
• Knife crime: led by the police and supported by the community
• Burglaries: Led by the police and supported by the community. This will include disrupting and capturing offenders. Crime prevention activities including ANPR operations, crime reduction events and education.

These were set at the Forum Meeting on November 21st 2018.

The next meeting of the Chiltern Community Forum will be at 6.30 pm on Wednesday 20th February 2019, at Chalfont St Peter Parish Council Offices on Gravel Hill.