Two officers injured after “significant incident of disorder” at town hotel

Wrexham’s Inspector Luke Hughes has given the now usual detailed breakdown of an unusual night in town.

The ever popular update from the local policing team covers a sample of the calls for service over the previous ‘police day’ 24 hour period.

Today’s update references 53 incidents reported – and a call to police to let them know someone would be walking around in a chicken costume.

Last night also saw police called to a local hotel just after 7pm, and then extra officers brought in from outside the area to attend a call later in the evening.

As always, the full update is below… 

In for 05:30hrs today, I still maintain it’s the best time of the day, I find an empty police station which is a worry as it usually the time of night that officers are back in and typing up the nights events. It’s a apparent that they are out looking for a wanted male, a number of early morning address checks, not located, but we will in time. It was also apparent that they had a very busy night dealing with a significant incident of disorder at a local hotel, but more on that later…

Wrexham is hosting a play day today and the sun is shining so if you are free pop along, a great opportunity to meet some of the local NPT who will be out and about. Which leads onto the Engagement Hub – not sure I like that name so I’m trying to think of something less corporate… you may have seen in the press yesterday that we have identified an unused shop to occupy during the summer months, I think it’s perfectly placed for seeing and being seen, I just need to roll my sleeves up and give it a tidy and move some furniture in, hopefully up and running in the next few days.

In the last 24hrs officers have dealt with a variety of incidents as some outlined below, I must add that your staff are amongst the busiest in the force, they work 12 hours shifts and always get on with “business” without compliant, I am incredibly proud of what we do day in and day out, sometimes we get it right sometimes maybe you think we could have done it better, but ultimately it is always done with the best intention.

There is a facility to provide feedback via the NWP website and I was really pleased to read a review of one of our officers who helped a member of the public who had taken a fall, people are quick to complain at times and the officers and I certainly take it to heart. So to see someone going out of their way to provide positive feedback was really fantastic.

So onto the review, 53 incidents reported, the usual variety, missing personal, concerns, mental health issues, property etc but also..

08:50hrs – Call from member of the public advising his friend would be walking around in a chicken costume… ok…

09:57hrs – report of two Irish registered vehicles deliberately not paying for fuel at a town centre petrol station. Details circulated to local officers.

12:07hrs – parcel potentially stolen from doorstep of property, occurred on the 1st August – please try and specify a safe place / neighbour rather than simply leaving things on your doorstep, just in case.

A few incidents reported during this time, including a low level shoplifting that requires follow up, female detained.

19:22hrs – first report to local hotel, reporting that a number of people have travelled into the area for a wedding, that there is the potential for issues as a result, officers attend and confirm a large wedding reception taking place and around 200 people present.

19:46hrs – reports of a male begging in Plas Coch – I have mentioned this male before, he portrays himself as homeless, he is not, he has conditions not to be present at the location due to abuse he has given people, he has also been seen to throw away food he has been given by kind members of the public as he wants money.

Please don’t encourage this behaviour; he has a significant support network available to him.

21:08hrs – Report of a small group of youths causing issues near a bowling alley, if your children state they are going to this location please hold them to account as on occasion some of their behaviour is questionable.

23:12hrs – officers are inevitably called back to what is now serious disorder at the aforementioned hotel…. As stated a significant number, circa 200 have travelled into the area to attend a wedding, sadly they do not conduct themselves well, there are far too many younger persons present, emotions run high and boil over, officers attend and deal with sporadic fighting over a period of two hours, it necessitates officers from outside the area travelling in to deal with and resolve issues. I find it embarrassing that people behave like this, that they can’t conduct themselves appropriately and waste officers time dealing with this nonsense on a random Tuesday evening… two female officers receive superficial injuries as a result – totally disgraceful behaviour.

No arrests have been made… yet… but I can assure those in attendance that we are reviewing body worn video and CCTV, I suspect we will be in touch.