Police Update

Police UpdateWritten by PC Charlie Mileham

As we move into autumn, with our days getting shorter and nights getting longer, I hope that many of you are now enjoying life in the post-lockdown world, and that we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief as we return to normality after difficult 18 months. We have all faced our own unique challenges and had to adapt to new ways of living which hasn’t always been easy.

Now with shops, bars, cafés and other local businesses open, we can finally start to enjoy all that our community has to offer. Lockdown policing has, at times, proved challenging and we would like to thank you all for your continued support. We now look forward to protecting our communities for the future. One scheme that I would like to highlight, looking to engage and enrich communities, is “ROC Conversation”.

ROC provides a structured community engagement event, which is live and/or online, and invites members of the community to gather and discuss the specific needs of their community, and explore more practical ways of meeting those needs and achieving success. It is a celebration of the positives in the community, whilst also assisting smaller organisations by bringing everyone together to help with funding opportunities and explore what can be put in place to make the community flourish. ROC has had great successes all over the country, from the first ROC café in Manchester, to community work in Weston-Super-Mare. A ROC Conversation is coming to Bristol East on 30th September at City Academy and we encourage everyone to get involved. For further information please contact info@roc.uk.com. To book a space at ROC Conversation please go to www.roc.uk.com/bristoleast or call 0161 393 4511.

Secondly, I would like to address the issue of graffiti that has been occurring in the area. We are always exploring different ways to solve this problem, from round table meetings with members of the public, to testing ideas put in place by other police constabularies nationwide. We are working together with other partners and agencies to find long-term solutions. If you have been a victim of graffiti, this can be reported to Bristol City Council via https://www.bristol.gov. uk/streets-travel/graffiti who can arrange cleaning. If you are a repeat victim of graffiti, please report this to police via 101.

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Finally, as we are now in autumn and the nights get longer we remind our communities to be vigilant. With restrictions lifted and more people out and about, we have been conducting more high-visibility patrols in the area so expect to see a lot more of us. We want the community to feel safe. We also want these patrols to be a two-way conversation, so please do say hi if you see us out and about – we love to chat!

Please stay safe in this post-lockdown world, and until next time, PC Mileham.