Chief Speaks Of Lower Crime

I have to hand it to the Wednesfield Police Commander Andy Armstrong because at tonight’s meeting[Wednesday] he turned out his top team to welcome local Councillors.

A presentation was made by Chief Superintendent Andy Armstrong on the current crime situation on the East Side of Wolverhampton. There was a full explanation made about the crime figures, and they were certainly impressive. Major crime in this part of the City is down.

However the debate fastened around ‘perception’ and how the public perceived crime.

Councillor Phil Bateman said “there is a clear message here. Crime really is down, but so is the public confidence and therefore there is some scepticism about the police suggesting that crime really is down . Councillor Geoff Foster explained that anti social behaviour is everywhere, and people are wound up about that. They are scared of large groups of youths that gather and look menacing. They do not like bus shelters wrecked and ugly grafitti everywhere, their perception is that crime is everywhere.

I explained to the team present that they had to do better in communicating what their achievements were. Also there had to be an improvement in the flow of information out of the police station and back into the public arena.The public were rightly critical when information dry's up. and the police do not effectively tell them what is happening in their neighbourhoods.

It was a lively meeting and I did criticise the Police for also not informing Councillors of events and the results of crime incidents, even after Councillors had written in for information.

Indeed I contend that the Police are the worst public authority when it comes to answering correspondence. I left the force with a number of letters that have yet to have a satisfactory response.

But the meeting was a very valuable one and the Police are to be congratulated on their initiative. There are a lot of very dedicated police officers working in our City . The police were right to point out that there were some very good police work taking place across the patch.

It was also nice to know that 'Councillor Phil Bateman On Line' is so avidly read by Officers at Wednesfield Police Station. The hot news is that they are now also going to have a web site of their own ! With officers asking if there could be a link from mine to theirs….now that is partnership!”

Finally I was impressed by the openess and the very frank approach adopted by Chief Superintendent Andy Armstrong, I suspect that we are going to see a very different police approach being adopted in his OCU.