Bedfordshire Police HQ
Bridgebury House, Woburn Road, Kempston, Bedfordshire, MK43 9AX
Email the OPCC
PCC@beds.police.uk
Bridgebury House, Woburn Road, Kempston, Bedfordshire, MK43 9AX
PCC@beds.police.uk
A critical element of Home Secretary’s strategic priority for there to be a relentless focus on cutting crime are the new National Crime and Policing Measures, which set out the Government’s key national priorities on crime. These measures fall under the following headings:
Reduce murder and other homicides
There have been 3x recorded homicide offences in Q2, one of which has subsequently been reclassified. Of the remaining two, one (Op Helianthos) is confirmed as a murder and the suspect has been charged. The other (Op Bassett) is an attempted murder involving a shooting, whereby one suspect has been arrested and charged.
There were 2x homicide offences recorded in Q1, a total of 5x to date against just one in the same period last year.
Homicide reduction focuses on SV and DA and forms part of existing reduction plans in those respective areas.
Reduce serious violence
The force has seen further reductions in SV in Q2 compared to Q1 and for the same period last year. These reductions are across both gun crime and knife crime and although ‘other violence’ is up on last year, it is below pre-pandemic levels.
The reductions have been seen across both Bedford and Luton, however there has been an increase (most notably) in other violence across Central Beds. The force will be utilising the uplift in ‘Grip’ funding to adopt a similar dedicated ‘Sparkler’ response to Central Beds that has reaped rewards across Bedford and Luton.
The force continues with Op Rowan – an academic study based upon hotspot patrols, involving a ‘pulse’ delivery of service.
The continued excellent work of the VERU focuses on intervention and diversion, with higher levels of referrals continuing into Q2. A bespoke BAVEX campaign has raised awareness amongst children, parents and those who work with young people and a refreshed schools programme has been delivered to coincide with the return to education in Q2.
Q2 2021 stats
117 stop searches with 30 arrests culminating in in 30 positive outcomes.
In total, there were 559.5 hours of proactive patrols:
From that proactivity £11560 in cash seized, 86 wraps of class A and B drugs seized, 4 knives and 2 viable firearms seized.
This has generated 113 intelligence reports.
Disrupt drugs supply and county lines
Bedfordshire currently have 36 live OCG’s and 5 priority individuals (41). Drug supply is the highest primary SOC driver across the organised crime groups mapped with 32 (78%) OCG’s primary criminality being Drug supply.
Bedfordshire currently have 28 County Lines mapped all of which are MoRile scored. 23 CL are importing lines with 5 exporting lines.
Drug trafficking offences have increased by 20% from Q1 to Q2, but enforcement is strong.
The second County Lines intensification week starts on the 11th October with activity planned for every day that week and will be reported in Q3. The force has taken advantage of, applied for and been granted £55K of NCLCC surge funding this year.
Op Costello is Bedfordshire’s response to NCA activity against encro-phones. We have identified a number of OCG’s operating within Bedfordshire with primary criminality of Class A supply, further progress from Q1 includes:
Op XXXX – 6x warrants executed, 4kg of cocaine seized along with £50k cash and 3x people charged and remanded.
Op XXXX – 6kg of cannabis recovered as well as £9k cash.
Op XXXX – Shotgun and ammunition recovered with suspect charged and remanded.
The recently commissioned Cannabis factory profile linking to street violence has been adopted and is used to help understand this threat across the region.
Reduce neighbourhood crime
Bedfordshire has seen reductions in recorded offences of Burglary (residential) and Personal Robbery in Q2 from Q1, also down on YTD from last year.
There has been a slight increase in TOMV, TFMV and Theft from a Person in Q2 from Q1. These will continue to be monitored and managed through existing force governance structures.
Victim Satisfaction (Domestic Abuse)
Bedfordshire Police is still in a transitional period with regards to capturing extensive VS data and at present the capability is limited. That said, the focus is on DA victims.
In Sept 38x surveys were completed with the headlines being that 80% of victims were satisfied by the service/ felt supported.
In Q2 we have received a total of 73x reports of dissatisfaction, of which 5x related to victims of DA (either closed to their satisfaction or still open, none subject to a subsequent referral to PSD)
Tackle cyber crime
Bedfordshire has a dedicated and well resourced Cyber Hub to tackle Cyber Crime and raise awareness. Further to the comprehensive update in Q1:
Cyber Protect/Prevent | July-Sept 21 |
Educational Presentations | 22 |
Delegates | 582 |
Business Presentations | 14 |
Delegates | 264 |
Action Fraud Victims | 989 |
Email Contact | 916 |
Telephone Calls | 68 |
House Visits | 5 |
Reduce murder and other homicides
There were four homicides in Beds in the year April 2020-March 2021 (no change from the year before). Beds also has the lowest rate (per million population) across BC and H.
However, 2021/22 data will show 5x recorded Homicide YTD. That said, only 2x are confirmed murders. 2x unexplained deaths and so, recorded as such until determined either way and the other a cold case (1997) now recorded on Athena.
Homicide reduction focuses on SV and DA and forms part of existing reduction plans in those respective areas.
Reduce serious violence
The force has seen month on month (YTD) reductions in SV, with county wide figures below both last year and that before the pandemic. These reductions are across both gun crime and knife crime and although ‘other violence’ is up on last year, it is below pre-pandemic levels.
The reductions have been seen across both Bedford and Luton, however there has been an increase (most notably) in other violence across Central Beds. The force will be utilising the uplift in ‘Grip’ funding to adopt a similar dedicated ‘Sparkler’ response to Central Beds that has reaped rewards across Bedford and Luton.
The continued excellent work of the VERU focuses on intervention and diversion, with high levels of referrals made during the month of June. A bespoke BAVEX campaign has raised awareness amongst children, parents and those who work with young people.
Disrupt drugs supply and county lines
Bedfordshire currently have 38 live OCG’s and 6 priority individuals (44). Drug supply is the highest primary SOC driver across the organised crime groups mapped with 34 (74%) OCG’s primary criminality being Drug supply.
Bedfordshire currently have 30 County Lines mapped all of which are MoRile scored. 23 CL are importing lines (managed in CIB) with 7 exporting lines.
Since January 2021 dedicated teams have led on 35 CL enforcements, yielding 31 people arrested, 13 persons charged with supply or conspiracy to supply approximately £70K value of class A drugs have been seized. The second County Lines intensification week starts on the 11th October with activity planned for every day that week. The force has taken advantage of, applied for and been granted £55K of NCLCC surge funding this year.
Op Costello is Bedfordshire’s response to NCA activity against encro-phones. We have identified a number of OCG’s operating within Bedfordshire with primary criminality of Class A supply, the current performance data from that operation is as follows:
Total warrants; 105
Total arrested; 54
Total charged; 29
Op Detroit has seen the first full turnaround of activity reach conclusion, whereby 4x members of an OCG have been sentenced to over 50yrs.
The disruptions recorded by the Region show Bedfordshire record the broadest spread of disruptions across our OCG’s within the 7 forces.
The recently commissioned Cannabis factory profile linking to street violence has been adopted and is used to help understand this threat across the region.
Reduce neighbourhood crime
Bedfordshire has seen month on month and YTD reductions in Burglary (residential), Personal Robbery and Theft from MV.
There has been an increase in Theft of MV and Theft from a Person YTD, these can be expected in line with the change in pandemic conditions. These will continue to be monitored and managed through existing force governance structures.
Tackle cyber crime
Bedfordshire has a dedicated and well resourced Cyber Hub to tackle Cyber Crime and raise awareness. YTD the key points :
To counter this, Bedfordshire Police have doubled the size of the Internet Child Abuse Investigation Team (ICAIT) over the last three years, and embedded them within the Cyber Hub, to ensure efficiency and the maximisation of communication between the investigation team and digital device examiners.
Reduce murder and other homicides – murder and homicide figures remain low with none in the last 4 months.
Reduce serious violence – overall MSV declined in 20-21 compared to 19-20. However there was a spike in Aug 20 (end of lockdown). The average solved rate has been somewhere between 30-35%. Knife Crime in 20-21 was below the levels seen in 19-20. Gun Crime has fluctuated a lot during 20-21 and is currently slightly below levels seen in 19-20.
Disrupt drugs supply and county lines – Trafficking of drugs has seen an increase in 20-21 compared to the previous 2 financial years. The average monthly solved rate in 20-21 is 76.06%. This is the highest it has been in the last 3 years. Possession of drugs has declined during 20-21. Levels are now comparable with those seen in 19-20 and 18-19.
Reduce neighbourhood crime –
Tackle cyber crime – Cyber Crime (Online keyword) has increased during 20-21 and is now above levels seen in 19-20 and 18-19. The average monthly solved rate in 20-21 was 8%
Improve satisfaction among victims – with a particular focus on victims of domestic abuse – Victim surveys have recently been re-instated. Satisfaction levels are generally very good particularly for victims of Domestic Abuse. In April 2021, those that agreed with the statement ‘I am satisfied with the way I have been treated by the Police’ was 72% of those asked in a Non DA survey and 86% of those asked in a DA only survey.
With regards to disruptions, we can provide the following statements:
OCG disruptions are recorded against the primary criminality of an OCG rather than the type of disruption. At the start of the financial year several OCGs were recorded as firearms OCGs: however, as they have been reviewed over the past few months the primary criminality has changed to drugs.
The figures for Q1 – 4 20/21 are below:
Period | Number of Disruptions |
Qtr1 | 109 |
Qtr2 | 124 |
Qtr3 | 100 |
Qtr4 | 38 |
This is phased by month as below, where you can see the large tail off as you get to the most recent months.
Bedfordshire Police HQ
Bridgebury House
Woburn Road
Kempston
Bedfordshire
MK43 9AX
Tel: 01234 842064
© Bedfordshire Police & Crime Commissioner 2022
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