Inspector Paul Ferguson authorised the 48-hour order on Thursday (30 January) afternoon following a spike in offences in the vicinity of the stores along Mansfield Road.
These included shoplifting, drug-taking, and various forms of antisocial behaviour (ASB), such as begging, with the order giving police powers to move individuals on from the area and keep them away.
Neighbourhood officers dispersed five people suspected of wrongdoing as a result, with police currently taking action against two of them after they failed to comply with the order.
After receiving positive feedback from shopworkers and other members of the local community about how well the dispersal order had worked, Inspector Ferguson has insisted his team will be ready to make use of these powers again if needed.
“Tackling ASB, acquisitive crimes like shoplifting, and drug offences has been a key priority here in the City North area for some time now because we understand the negative impact they can have on our communities,” he said.
“A decision was made to issue a dispersal order along Mansfield Road in the second half of last week after we received reports of offending that crossed all these priority policing areas.
“While the decision to do this is never one we’ll take lightly, we will never hesitate to enforce these powers should we deem it to be absolutely necessary, which we did on this occasion.
“Looking at the results from this and listening to some of the feedback from the community, the dispersal order was successful, but we’re not complacent about this and will continue to monitor the situation to stop it happening again.”
Sherwood and Carrington have seen a combined 47 per cent reduction in reports of shoplifting compared to the same period last year, while ASB incidents have also dropped by 34 per cent in these areas.
Despite the drop in shoplifting reports, neighbourhood officers have improved the positive outcome rate – meaning police action leading to an arrest or some other sanction – for these offences to 47 per cent.
Officers have also been dedicating a lot of time towards deterring ASB and catching anyone involved in it.
Inspector Ferguson added:
“As an example, aggressive begging is a particularly unpleasant form of ASB, which isn’t acceptable, with our neighbourhood policing teams doing a lot of work to try and address this issue.
“This includes working with community partners to help those who are rough sleeping receive support, conducting visible patrols to deter this behaviour, and also holding regular days of action aimed at taking positive action against anyone who does it.
“Our ask to anyone who sees this going on within the community is to tell us about it – whether that’s approaching one of our officers out on the beat or reporting it to us via 101.
“Because we know how much this type of offending – as well as shoplifting and drug activity – impacts people’s quality of life in our communities, we will continue to focus on these areas as a policing team.”
