Sussex Police visit Chichester for hotspot event - 'this type of policing has reduced knife crime by 50%'

On Thursday, August 30, Sussex Police had a hotspot engagement event in Chichester’s city centre. The police say that the event enabled members of the community to have a chat with them as well as provide information about the method of policing.

On the day, there was also a gaming van available for young members of the community to use which featured PS4s and a wide variety of games. Albion in the Community was also there on the occasion.

Inspector Rob Hart was at the event speaking to members of the public and spoke to Sussex World about the positive impact of this type of policing.

He said: “We’re doing an engagement event to reach out to the community of Chichester to reassure them that Sussex and Chichester is a safe place to be.

"We're using a multitude of tactics including engagement to target anti-social behaviour and serious violence. We're seeing a small rise in anti-social behaviour and serious violence, which we want to eradicate and get on top of in its early forms.

"So far in West Sussex alone, across our hotspots, we've seen a 19.3% reduction in social behaviour, a 3.5% reduction in violence involving injury, and a 50% reduction in knife crime, so hotspot policing works.

"It's about making sure that we target the right areas. We use police and partnership data to make sure that we're focusing in the right areas, and the right hotspots, and then our tactics that we do use are wide-ranging. Last year we had 15 hotspots. We've increased that this year, now we have 29.

"What we do see is a potential increase in youth crime as well linked to the social behaviour. We’re trying to give diversionary opportunities to individuals… The engagement vans are here for us and my team to be able to engage with the community, but the gaming van is one of many options we have.

"We also work with Creative Beatz within Chichester as well for individuals that might like music and trying to offer a diverse range of activities, such as football through the Brighton and Hove Albion Foundation.”

Emma Hazzledine, whose children used the gaming van on the day commended the police's efforts to chat to the community.

She said: “It’s nice to speak to the police. The children have enjoyed speaking to the police officers too and finding out what’s going on in Sussex. The gaming truck also helped them and they had good fun!”