Police respond to drug crime at Broadfield Barton

During the online Crawley Question Time meeting, Inspector Steve Turner was asked about incidents on Broadfield Barton, where drug taking and dealing was ‘happening publicly and visibly’.

Mr Turner said police were aware of the situation and taking action but that people needed to keep reporting incidents with ‘as much detail as possible’.

He added: “Drug-related crime is obviously very impactive and very much a priority for us in Crawley as it is in most policing areas.

“We have increased our patrols – both high visibility patrols and plain clothes patrols. That helps us to populate any intelligence gaps, look at patterns and look at proactive lines that we can take.”

As reported in most areas, crime figures have fallen during the pandemic and Mr Turner said Crawley was a safe place.

He recognised, though, that the perception of crime was often ‘far higher than the crime rates’ and police would not be resting on their laurels.

He said: “It’s important for us to make sure that people do feel safe.

“Part of our priority isn’t just understand how crime’s affecting people, it’s making them feel safe when they don’t feel safe.”

He told the meeting there were PCSOs in each electoral area, staying visible, talking to people and telling them what the police were doing.

Lauding the efforts of Operation Tangent – which centred around high visibility intelligence-led patrols of open spaces – Mr Turner said police had seen some ‘really positive results’.

As well as calling 999 in an emergency or 101 for non-emergency incidents, you can report crimes online via www.sussex.police.uk/reportcrime .