An officer who conducted a successful warrant and recovered drugs in his first week of a new role is starting as he means to go on.
Sergeant Natham Phipps was part of a proactive team which recovered numerous bags of cannabis as well as a quantity of counterfeit cash and other paraphernalia, such as scales and packaging materials, when they descended on a house in Primrose Close, St Ann’s.
A 28-year-old man was also arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply class B drugs following the warrant, which took place on Thursday 26 August 2021. He has been released under investigation and enquiries continue.
The action comes in Natham’s first week taking on the role of neighbourhood policing sergeant for St Ann’s.
Sergeant Phipps said: “This was a really positive piece of work where we acted on local intelligence and we subsequently got results from this.
“Not only have a significant quantity of class B drugs been taken out of circulation, but a man was arrested and questioned about the find.
“Neighbourhood policing is absolutely a two-way approach and I want to continue working in this way going forward. Tackling drug-related crime has been listed as a priority for us in St Ann’s and so it’s extremely rewarding to get results through these proactive efforts.
“I would urge anyone with concerns or issues they want us to focus on to come and tell us so we are aware and can tailor our policing based on what we’re told matters to people in the area.”
The new role and community comes after spending six years policing in Broxtowe, beginning on Response where he spent five years of his career as a PC dealing with a variety of incidents such as burglaries and road traffic collisions. He then moved over to the Neighbourhood Policing Team where he was for a year.
Before this, Sergeant Phipps spent time with local social justice charity Nacro, working with vulnerable young people, adults and families and helping them with issues such as housing, mental health and substance misuse issues.
The time spent here really spurred on the 32-year-old’s passion for helping people and working proactively to see those at a disadvantage succeed, and when a chance to get into policing presented itself it was a chance for him to put these skills to a new use.
“Policing offered new challenge but it is still all about helping people and meeting new people, understanding their situations and helping to resolve it in the best way we can” he added.
“I think that empathy is definitely useful when it comes to engaging with local communities as yes, we work hard to solve crimes, but we also want to give time to those residents we don’t engage with quite as often and allow them to have a say on how we police as well.
“I am very much looking forward to working as part of this brilliant proactive team we have in the area.
“We have a very experienced neighbourhood team but also we are based with other specialist officers such as our knife crime team and CID, which is a real bonus as this makes us really effective in working together when needed to both prevent and solve crime.
“I’m very keen for us to be out in the community and for residents to come and talk to us.”
Neighbourhood Policing Inspector for City South Karl Thomas said: “It’s fantastic to welcome Sergeant Phipps to the St Ann’s team.
“His efforts have already helped to take a large quantity of drugs out of circulation and, alongside this, his experience and enthusiasm for increasing engagement and helping people will be invaluable when it comes to looking how we police the area.
“I look forward to working with Natham as his Inspector and seeing how he and his team work together to serve the community and proactively tackle issues that the community tell us about.”
