It was national hate crime week last week so we were involved in a number of engagements and initiatives across the city and wider district sharing crime prevention advice and education.  We have a number of hate crime reporting centres as well as many trained professionals in identifying and supporting victims of hate crime.   You can follow this link to report hate crime or find out more information How to report hate crime | Essex Police If you have been a victim of crime then you can follow this link to access support via the victim support services  My Support Space MOJ

We arrested 3 wanted persons in the city centre earlier in the week and this was thanks to our eagle eyed PCSO’s who were out on patrol in the city centre.  One of these arrested persons was wanted on recall to prison so they shall not be causing our community any more harm for the time being.  Another of these persons was charged and remanded for multiple offences and put before the next available court.   We have also arrested, charged and remanded a shoplifter who breached their bail conditions having already been arrested and bailed for similar offences during the week.

We continue to complete hi-visibility patrols in the city centre and challenge those in breach of the public space protection order.  We completed 168 hours of hi-visibility patrols and dispersed 6 people in breach of the PSPO.  We have also completed  12 stop and searches and seized suspected stolen items and controlled substances from people we have searched.  We worked alongside our policing colleagues in the Operation Support Group and completed an operation servator deployment which focuses on high visibility patrolling alongside specially trained officers who can spot those individuals who may be involved in crime.  We complete these operations on a regular basis and at different times and days so that we can build up a local intelligence picture and disrupt criminality.

We have also been involved in a number of school visits this week to engage with young people and break down barriers between the police and local communities.  PCSO Compton visited Gosbecks Primary school and the children were able to try on some of our police uniform.  If you would like one of our PCSO’s to visit your primary school or community engagement then please get in touch and contact us on colchestercommunitypolicingteam@essex.police.uk

PCSO March won an award at Lawrence Walker Awards for his community engagement work with a number of organisations in Colchester. I am extremely proud to be working on a team with such passionate and dedicated officers, who do everything they can to support local communities and keep people safe.  I will end this week on this positive note and wish everyone a safe week.

There is so much going on that I cannot cover everything in my blog, but I hope that this gives an understanding and flavour as to what the team have been doing.  If you want more information about anything in this blog or want to get in touch about an initiative or something else then please write to us at colchestercommunitypolicingteam@essex.police.uk

If you want to read more about what is happening locally then please sign up to our new digital newsletter called Dispatch by following this link Dispatch newsletter | Essex Police

You can also follow us on Facebook Essex Police - Colchester District | Facebook