City Beat: New team tackling Peterborough's prolific offenders

A major part of the team’s role will be to help tackle shoplifting, an issue that has been in the news a lot this year.

We recognise the impact retail crime has on business owners and hard-working people who witness these incidents first hand.

The new team will target the most prolific offenders who are suspected of committing five or more crimes in a six-week period. They will also pursue people suspected of crimes who they believe will continue to offend based on their previous behaviour.

Although the team isn’t solely for shoplifting, the nature of these offences means that many thieves will fall under their remit.

They will also target the perpetrators of other high-volume crimes such as thefts from shops, non-dwelling burglaries, cycle crime and thefts from vehicles.

A similar team was introduced in Cambridge late in 2023 and it’s clear from their results that this approach works. I’m looking forward to seeing how the local team can help tackle the issue and support local businesses.

It’s important we work closely with partners concerning crimes such as shoplifting. It isn’t something we can simply fix by arresting people. We need to look at why people are habitually stealing. Many persistent offenders are trapped in addiction to either drugs or alcohol. Tackling the root causes of why they are committing crime is the only way we will stop them from re-offending.

However, the implementation of this new team is an important step forward for Peterborough as we work hard to do all we can from a policing perspective.

This month will also see the end of the national Safer Streets Summer campaign aimed at preventing crime and anti-social behaviour in city centres by showing an increased visible policing presence.

Whilst on patrol officers have made multiple arrests, including for drug offences and shoplifting, enforced Public Space Protection Orders, conducted stop searches and engaged with local businesses, as well as seizing e-scooters and issuing tickets for traffic offences.

Our two new neighbourhood policing teams are another positive development for the city, with an increase in resource for our communities.

The two extra sergeants and eight additional PCs will complement the existing excellent work being conducted by officers to tackle key issues we know really matter to people, such as anti-social behaviour.

There has been a lot of change in policing in recent months, especially for our neighbourhood teams, but I hope this has given you an insight into some of the ongoing work to make our city even safer for everyone.

If you’d like to like more information, please sign up to our eCops system for email alerts at www.eCops.org.uk or follow us on Facebook by searching Policing Peterborough.