Inspector Paul Gummer has published a brand new neighbourhood policing newsletter, offering a quarterly look into local policing priorities, crime trends, and the fantastic work being done by the team.
The update reads:
‘Welcome to your neighbourhood policing newsletter for Nottingham City Centre.
‘The plan is for a newsletter to be produced every three months or so, to hopefully provide our community with a bit of insight into the latest local policing priorities, crime trends and some of the great work the City Centre Neighbourhood Policing Team have been carrying out in recent months.
Current priorities in your area
Having worked closely with our partners and engaged the community, a decision was recently made for Knife Crime and Retail Crime to remain our local priorities for July to September 2025.
The priorities for the City Centre Neighbourhood team is reviewed every 3 months in a Multi-Agency meeting attended by the Principle City Council Anti-Social Behaviour Officer, Senior Community Protection officers, Licensing Team officers and police representatives from Integrated Offender Management, Problem Solving officers and Neighbourhoods.
The meeting looks at the data from crime recording and intelligence systems held by the police, as well as data from the Nottinghamshire Police Crime Commissioners Office and responses to the ‘What Matters’ survey submitted to the police via the Notts Alerts system, in order to determine which matters are important to our communities.
Actions on our priorities
Knife Crime:
Knife Crime in the City Centre has been chosen as a priority for this period due to a small number of knife related offences in the City Centre which have caused a reduction in feelings of safety and an increase in fear of crime.
We employ a multi-agency approach to tackle knife crime, working with public, private, and third sectors.
Communications and engagement activities support evidence-based approaches to reduce knife crime incidents and we focus on highlighting the dangers of carrying knives, enhancing public confidence, and reassuring the community. Improved training and education initiatives are in place, alongside disruption tactics such as Stop and Search.
Continued funding from the Home Office Grip and Violence Reduction Programme (VRP) ensures the capability and capacity to drive performance and reduce public risk through our officers carrying out high visibility patrols in key hotspot areas at key times to detect and deter knife related offending.
Nottinghamshire Police’s clear plan around tackling knife crime has been recognised nationally for best practice. Furthermore, it strongly focuses on the PCC’s ‘Safer Nottinghamshire for All’ undertaking, whilst putting communities and victims first, which strengthens partnership working and implements effective and resilient policing.
The increase in knife possession offences is attributed to proactive policing, with data showing that proactive local policing and collaboration with third-sector partners have led to more arrests and the removal of weapons from the streets. This proactive stance is crucial in deterring potential offenders and ensuring community safety. The use of intelligence-led policing and targeted operations has been instrumental in achieving these results.
Changes to the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 are expected to impact offence numbers. These changes include the prohibition of zombie knives, zombie-style weapons, and ninja swords. The introduction of these legislative measures aims to reduce the availability of dangerous weapons and enhance public safety. The anticipated increase in recorded offences following these changes is a temporary effect of the initial enforcement phase.
Retail Crime:
Retail theft has been chosen as one of the local policing priorities for the City Centre due to this being the highest crime type for the City. There are also links from prolific offender shop lifters with general anti-social behaviour, drug use and dealing etc.
As well as retail theft / shoplifting, we are seeing an increase in business robbery recording (due to a change in crime recording standards) whereby business staff are being threatened or assaulted by offenders. Clearly this is unacceptable. Nottinghamshire Police support the #ShopKind initiative from the National Business Crime Centre. It is backed by the Home Office and supported by major high street retailers as well as the nation’s independent shopkeepers, and the shopworkers union Usdaw.
The aim of the campaign is to encourage positive behaviours in shops, acknowledge the important role of shopworkers and raise awareness about the scale and impact of violence and abuse against shopworkers.
Our officers will look to deal robustly with any offenders who have committed business robberies or assaulted shopworkers.
In relation to retail crime we continue systematically targeting those repeat offenders who cause the most harm, ensuring they are quickly brought to justice and seeking additional orders (such as Criminal Behaviour Orders) to reduce the risk of their offending.
We also liaise with partner agencies and businesses to look at all available options to deal with offenders and assist with target hardening and problem solving.
We want to emphasis collaboration with retailers and encourage businesses to report shoplifting incidents through streamlined mechanisms (such as via SingleOnlineHome and being able to send CCTV over an online link etc.) which also assists is with a better understanding of crime trends to be able to adequately target repeat offenders, prolific offenders, hotspot locations etc.
We also work with the My Local Bobby officers from ItsInNottingham and are able to share two way information with them regarding offending.
Did you hear about this?
If you are not already signed up for Notts Alerts, I would request that you consider doing so – we use this system to deliver key messages regarding upcoming events and Beat Surgeries, ongoing activities, alerts regarding scams or suspicious behaviour and much more. You can register here: Notts Alerts | Nottinghamshire Police.
The summer months have seen the return of Nottingham Beach. Located at Old Market Square, the attraction brings all the best bits of the seaside straight to Nottingham City Centre. Alongside the sand, rides, bars, and entertainment, children have been able to enjoy ‘Storytime with Bobbi Bear’. The sessions are run by our PCSO Sue Rutter, who is passionate about showing children that the police are friendly people who they can always approach.
How to contact us
Looking for help or information? Want to tell us something or report an incident? Use our simple online tool to find the best way to get in contact.
Call 101 for non-emergency enquiries. Alternatively, our Live Chat service is available from 7am to 10pm, seven days a week. Navigate back to the home page of our website and look for the blue icon in the corner.
Call 999 if:
- a serious offence is in progress or has just been committed
- someone is in immediate danger or harm
- property is in danger of being damaged
- a serious disruption to the public is likely
If you wish to anonymously report crime or suspicious behaviour, contact Crimestopperson 0800 555 111.
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