Webchat with North Wales Police
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Posts
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A couple of questions asking similar things: “Why is there so many drug addicts and alcoholics at night by the carpark of the multi storey or peoples market and no police ever around” and “Why can’t I walk through town without being asked for money by a person who is homeless/alcoholic/drug addict.
and another of this pair – simon queries: “Why is it if you try and film a police office on a night out arresting someone, do they come over to you and threaten to arrest you as it’s illegal to record them…..when it s not.”
[quote quote=96717]A couple of questions asking similar things: “Why is there so many drug addicts and alcoholics at night by the carpark of the multi storey or peoples market and no police ever around” and “Why can’t I walk through town without being asked for money by a person who is homeless/alcoholic/drug addict.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________With regard to the peoples market area it is true that we see persons there regularly who have had too much to drink or used substances. Some of these persons are homeless and we direct these persons to agencies who can assist them. I have to be honest and say that our resources are finite and so incoming incidents are graded in order of priority and so it is entirely possible that when not in this area we are attending other incidents deemed more critical. With regard to begging in the town centre we receive a surprising number of complaints about this. We have recently set up a joint working unit (with Wrexham Council and other agencies) which will work together to use the new Anti Social Behaviour Act (which only came into being last October) which gives us far more powers to deal with these tyes of matters. This issue is the first thing this unit are dealing with so you will see an improvement and an announcement shortly in the press.
Paul Wycherley.[quote quote=96718]and another of this pair – simon queries: “Why is it if you try and film a police office on a night out arresting someone, do they come over to you and threaten to arrest you as it’s illegal to record them…..when it s not.”
It is not illegal to record in the circumstances you outline so I have no idea!
Paul Wycherley.
A regular feature on this site is a CCTV round up – prompting the query: “In the Wrexham area what is the response to (and arrests made )as a result of the poor quality Caught on Camera photos?”
Charlotte asks: “Why, when we are promised extra patrols, do we never see a police officer or pcos in sight?”
[quote quote=96721]A regular feature on this site is a CCTV round up – prompting the query: “In the Wrexham area what is the response to (and arrests made )as a result of the poor quality Caught on Camera photos?”
We have had very decent successes via caught on camera. I appreciate that the quality of some of the images is not great but often it is good enough for local people to recognise particular featues of an individual (coat colour even) which together with other information we hold can complete the picture.Do not view the caught on camera as the only item we have in a particular investigation. Often we have other information/evidence/intelligence and a suggestion from a member of the public about one of the images can simply be the missing part of the jigsaw.
Paul Wycherley.
[quote quote=96722]Charlotte asks: “Why, when we are promised extra patrols, do we never see a police officer or pcos in sight?”
Interesting! When I say in the press that we are increasing patrols in an area I instruct our sergeants to do so, and so I sincerely hope it is done! Sometimes we will deploy officers in plain clothes/vehicles in an area in an effort to catch individuals, other times we deploy uniform so that the public are reassured. Officers radios are equipped with a system so that managers can see how often officers are on patrol rather than in the station. For Wrexham town area our PCSOs are out over 70% of the time. As each have specific ward responsibility they should be highly visible.
Paul Wycherley.
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