Anti-social behaviour (ASB)

The Wantage and Grove Neighbourhood Team have been conducting both high visibility and less visible patrols of hotspot areas across the area where either ASB is reported directly to police or identified through intelligence and other channels. The team works collaboratively with White Horse District Council CCTV operators who operate several CCTV cameras in the area. Officers speak directly to CCTV operators while ASB, offences and other incidents are in progress and can also request reviews of particular areas to identify individuals engaging in ASB. Officers and PCSOs engage regularly with individuals who cause ASB to divert them away from that behaviour and work alongside schools, youth groups and other organisations to assist in education and enforcement. Following recent reports of anti-social driving in the area, the team have issued several warnings under Section 59 of the Police Reform Act. This gives police powers to seize vehicles driven anti-socially by drivers with a warning within the last 12 months . We regularly visit known address’ that attract ASB and support vulnerable individuals within our community using closure orders and target offenders where we utilise the use of community protection warnings and orders where suitable.

Rural Crime

With a large proportion of the area we cover being rural, we are aware of the considerable effect this has on victims and the whole community. We strive to be visible in our rural areas and utilise the use of our police 4x4 to get to less accessible locations. We conduct regular high visibility and also less visible patrols and regularly deploy to support our colleagues in the Incident and Crime Response teams in relation to reports of hare coursing, poaching and burglaries amongst many other reports. The rural community reports crime but also provides the team with intelligence that assists us to target patrols and collate evidence of suspicious activity. We continue to work closely with our Rural Crime Taskforce with intelligence gathering, issuing target hardening advice, assisting with investigations and warrants and regular patrol operations. Intelligence gathered by the team has gone on to support evidence that has enabled warrants to be obtained at offenders addresses. Further training has also been provided to officers to assist in identifying stolen machinery and the roll out of Selecta-DNA kits has continued, offering a further deterrent to offenders.

Retail Crime

The team is aware of the national attention on shoplifting that affects Wantage as a thriving Market Town with several large national companies operating among many small local businesses. The team has been conducting high visibility patrols of the area and engage regularly with shop and security staff. We work collaboratively with the Vale of White Horse District Council and their CCTV controllers to monitor, identify and locate offenders and continue to speak to the Town Council to discuss issues and solutions to retail theft. A new app called DISC, has been rolled out across Oxfordshire and the team have been visiting stores to sign them up. The app allows stores to make reports of shoplifting and also to share information with the police and other stores to raise awareness of trends and particular offenders. We continue to assist our colleagues on response with reports of theft from shops and with identifying offenders, obtaining CCTV and other evidence. Several offenders have been arrested and dealt with in court and the team is robust in dealing with repeat offenders. We recognise the importance of tackling retail crime to ensure prices remain fair to everyone and ensure our community thrives.