A team set up to focus on community concerns has arrested or interviewed 111 people since January.
The Operation Reacher Team in Gedling was one of the frontrunners for the force’s introduction of specialist teams whose role is to fight crime and work alongside communities to tackle issues that matter most to them.
The team has had a real impact since its launch at the start of the year – as well as the arrests and voluntary interviews with police, officers have carried out 146 stop and searches, made 81 drug seizures, taken 29 weapons off the streets and seized nearly a quarter of a million pounds in cash.
Much of the £241,905 cash, which was often seized in large bundles of notes, is believed to be linked to drug dealing.
Gedling was the second Reacher team to be introduced after the original Bestwood Reacher Team was launched in April 2018 and following their success, the model has now been rolled out to all 12 neighbourhood policing areas across the force.
Sergeant Matt Sisson, who leads the team, believes that tackling drug supply will make a real difference to the community. He said: “From my perspective, everything links back to drugs – drug addiction and drug dealing can be the catalyst for a whole range of other crimes which on the surface might seem unrelated. It’s something which can have a huge impact on an area and on people’s lives, so it’s good that we’re fighting back.”
Being able to help people is a huge motivation to Sergeant Sisson. “As a police officer, you really do feel like you’re improving people’s lives, he said. “Some of the feedback we get from the stuff we do, it motivates you to carry on.
“It’s nice when we get information from the public and we’re able to develop it, take action and go back to the person and say ‘this is what we’ve achieved’. It builds that confidence with the public that we’re listening to their concerns and taking action.
“Our role is really varied and we also do plain clothes work. We helped to arrest a suspected paedophile last week – those incidents really motivate you. Getting those people off the streets who are a risk to vulnerable young people is a really rewarding part of the job.”
Sergeant Sisson has been with the force with 12 years, starting as a police community support officer (PCSO) before becoming a police constable. He spent ten years of his career on the beat team and in response in Mansfield, but the challenge of long-term problem solving prompted him to join the Reacher team. “I’ve always enjoyed proactive policing, having time to hunt and find people”, he said. “My past experiences on the beat team helped me; learning the ropes as a PSCO and building community ties, if you like.”
The team has five members with two more due to join next month. Most of the officers have backgrounds in local policing, including PC Graham Willis who is providing valuable advice thanks to his experience on the original Operation Reacher Team in Bestwood. Sergeant Sisson said: “Graham was one of the original Bestwood team, so he’s lending a lot of guidance about how Reacher works. Before that he spent the majority of his service in the Gedling area, so he’s got great local knowledge and links in the community.”
The team has a spread of different experience, as Sergeant Sisson explained: “PC Dan Whitham is the youngest on the team with a couple of years’ service, but the majority have been in policing for around ten years. Graham is – I won’t say the oldest, but the most senior, maybe the wisest!”
Operation Reacher was first introduced in Bestwood in April 2018 and was successful in comprehensively dismantling organised crime groups that had been blighting the area. Some £1.8m of drugs were recovered and lengthy jail sentences were handed down to dozens of criminals in its first year alone.
The model was rolled out across Nottinghamshire in October, with teams of one sergeant and six police constables to complement the existing officers on the neighbourhood policing teams.
