Police take action against crime spike in Lancaster

Officers from the Neighbourhood Policing team have been conducting high visibility patrols in areas which have seen a rise in incidents and will continue to do so.

The team are also running various operations throughout the day and into the night, including a drug disruption operation.

Ch Insp Dave Britton, who oversees Neighbourhood Policing in Lancaster, Morecambe and Wyre, said: “I understand that some of the recent incidents may have caused some concern to residents, but I would like to assure the community that our officers are working around the clock to stamp out this behaviour.

“We are looking at locations, as well as offenders, for specific targeting and our analysis has identified a number of locations and groups responsible.

“My officers have made targeted patrol plans for areas of concern, which direct our police officers to these specific areas as a matter of priority and appropriate action is taken where necessary.

“We are utilising wider resources to tackle this on-going spike, such as working with different teams within the force such as response officers, neighbourhood officers as well as wider Task Force officers. We have also used and incorporated these areas in broader knife crime initiatives and brought in associated resources and equipment to help our response.

“We have already seen a number of charging decisions from recent incidents, and we are doing everything we can to continue to put offenders before the courts.

“I want to thank our local communities for their continued support as we tackle this spate of crime. We take all reports very seriously and I encourage anyone with information to get in touch. You can take our online survey, Lancashire Talking, to tell us all about what it is like to live in your area. And you can sign up to our alert service, In The Know for more information.”

“You can contact us with any information by calling 101, reporting online via the Lancashire Constabulary website, reporting anonymously via Crimestoppers or calling 999 in emergencies.”

Visit www.stayintheknow.co.uk to complete the Lancashire Talking survey and sign up to In The Know.