Published at 16:36, Tuesday, 05 February 2013

RESIDENTS have been helping to set the crime agenda by prioritising the issues they want police to tackle.

Residents from the Central, Hindpool and Barrow Island areas gathered at the Dundalk Street community centre to voice their opinions on crimes affecting their daily lives.

Inspector Ian McClymont described the crime figures from April last year until now as a “mixed bag”, with rises in some areas and significant reductions in others.

The focus for the community police force is on tackling burglaries, vehicle crime and drug supply in the area.

Insp McClymont said there had been a reduction in vehicle crimes for the area from April last year until now, compared with the same period the previous year. The figure now stand at 403 crimes, compared with 471 last year.

Officers are also focusing on educating the public about vehicle crimes and how to prevent them. Members of the public who attended the meeting heard that the majority of vehicle crimes were caused by one of two scenarios.

Insp McClymont explained the first was that valuables, such as hand bags, laptops and mobile phones, were being left in sight in the car. The second was that vehicles were being left unlocked and unattended.

Stolen pedal cycles have also been on the police agenda and officers have recovered a number of stolen bikes by regularly stopping cyclists.

The meeting, held on Thursday, went on to discuss the priority of drug problems.

Officers have been using the motto “go up stream to tackle the problem” and targeting dealers.

Insp McClymont said: “This year we have already set aside weeks where we will work on that.”

The meeting also heard that over the Christmas period, half of all assaults were domestic assaults.

Insp McClymont added: “It’s just one of those things. It is very difficult to police. We cannot go into the house and police.”

Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk