Local MP, Maria Miller, alongside Hampshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Donna Jones, hosted a roundtable with Basingstoke business owners, to discuss concerns about crime in the top of town.
Maria said: “The pandemic excluded people from the town centre for many months, but we are now seeing people resume their shopping and leisure habits in higher numbers. With that comes concern from business owners and shoppers that town centre crime could also increase again. Crimes like shoplifting and anti-social behaviour are a real concern particularly for retailers, as is the problem many have experienced reporting crime and understanding the action the Police take.
“Business owners joined me, following on from a similar meeting I held in September last year, to hear directly from the Police and Crime Commissioner. It was reassuring to hear about the specific work being done to improve the crime reporting service via 111 and the website (https://www.hampshire.police.uk/ro/report/ocr/af/how-to-report-a-crime/ ), plus the increase in unformed officers due to be posted in the Borough as a result of the nationwide uplift. We agreed to hold regular meetings to report on progress.”
The meeting was attended by: local business owners; the Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Donna Jones; the Police District Commander, CI Scott Johnson; the Borough Council’s Chief Executive, Russell O’Keefe; and Brookvale and Kings Furlong Ward Cllrs, Arun Mummalaneni, Sam Jeans, and Michael Howard-Sorrell.
As part of the Government’s 2019 Police Uplift of 20,000 new officers, Hampshire is due to get 498 new Police. The PCC is aims to go beyond this and is on target to recruit 600 new officers by March 2023, the last of whom should be fully trained and deployable by March 2025. Around 50 of these new officers will be stationed in the Basingstoke and Deane Borough. Alongside this, the PCC is funding the rollout of the new ‘Disc’ app for crime reporting, to help facilitate easier reporting for victims and improve the Police’s gathering of intelligence on crime in town.
Details of the PCC’s ‘More Police, Safer Streets’ plan, can be found here: