Police Forum Headlines

Cllr Keith Deakin, St Helens Councils representative on Merseyside Police Authority, and Superintendant Mike Baines, Head of Operations in St Helens, presented the latest report back to a packed Thatto Heath Activity Centre audience last night.

Mike informed the meeting that a major drive combatting Anti Social behavior had been ordered by Merseyside's Chief Constable. New powers will soon be in place to take action on persistant badly behaved children aged between 10 years and 17 years of age.

Although crime figures for our area, D3 - which includes Rainhill, Eccleston, Thatto Heath and West Park, are well down during the last 6 months, the perception of crime, the fear of it happening, had appeared to have increased. For this reason, the Reassurance Project, which aims to combat the fear of crime, will be rolled out to include Rainhill Village.

Inspector Don Blackburn, who leads the team covering D3, gave a presentation which highlighted the latest initiatives. In response to resident's views on policing priorities, he gave a series of new initiatives to include:

Speeding Traffic - a new speed gun has been purchased and known speed-runs are to be targetted

Sales of Alcohol to youngsters - In partnership with Trading Standards, test purchases will be carried out at various outlets where underage sales are suspected.

Anti-Social Behavior - as previously stated, more police action and more rapid response times whenever possible. Section 30 notices (which can target individual streets) will be sought.

Drugs - a Crack House closure has recently taken place and several other locations are being investigated.

posted by Cllr. Steve Glover at 1:15 pm