Police officers in Eastwood are using e-bikes to fight crime more effectively in the town centre
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - I'm Rich Reynolds, been with the force 21 years.
00:09 I'm Eastwood Beat Manager,
00:11 which I've been doing for about 17, 18 years now.
00:14 Love the job.
00:15 - I'm PC Leask, I'm at Eastwood Beat Team now as well.
00:18 Been in the force five years,
00:20 Eastwood for around three years now as well.
00:22 We love getting out on these bikes,
00:23 doing what is part of our general patrols,
00:25 as well as trying to keep the public safe.
00:27 They're electric pedal assisted bikes.
00:29 So essentially we're doing the work still with pedaling.
00:32 The electric just gives us a little bit of extra help
00:34 up to around 15 mile an hour.
00:36 - I'm Helen Faccio and I am the portfolio holder
00:39 for community safety on Broxtow Borough Council.
00:42 So these two new electric bikes have been purchased
00:47 thanks to funding from the Safer Streets Project.
00:50 The Beat Team in the Eastwood area
00:52 have been out and about on them,
00:54 using them nearly all the time,
00:56 and it's given them a lot more agility and flexibility
00:59 to be out on the streets and able to detect crime
01:03 and increase their visibility with the public.
01:06 - Can cover a large, large range
01:08 so we can do up to 50 miles a day on them,
01:10 possibly even more.
01:11 - Yeah.
01:12 - So they're very useful, yeah.
01:13 - We've often done 50 miles plus in a day.
01:16 And it's a great way just to keep patrolling
01:18 your local streets where you're having issues.
01:21 So you're just cycling around all day.
01:23 And we have seen a big reduction in crime
01:26 and other issues and drug dealing
01:29 while we're patrolling on them.
01:30 - We've used normal push bikes before, which are great.
01:33 They're still good, still useful.
01:35 However, the purchase of the electric bikes
01:36 as part of the Safer Streets scheme
01:39 has helped us gain more mileage,
01:41 be more visible, more out there,
01:43 and be able to detain more people,
01:45 be able to engage with more people,
01:47 like we've said previously, to prevent and detect crime.
01:51 - Well, we've been cycling around the town centre.
01:54 It's a great way to deter shoplifters
01:56 and things like that, reassure the public.
01:59 We've been into a couple of shops
02:00 and been having issues as well.
02:02 We've been on Princes Street,
02:04 one of the most notorious streets in Eastwood
02:07 for crime and antisocial behaviour,
02:09 patrolling around there.
02:10 And we've been to Coronation Park.
02:13 - Also, we've taken reports off people
02:14 of antisocial behaviour in the area,
02:16 which is very easy to do when we're on the bikes
02:18 because they can flag us down.
02:19 We can stop and speak to anybody we want.
02:20 A lot simpler and a lot easier than we can with the cars.
02:22 - Also, a great way to gather intelligence as well.
02:25 We get flagged down by a lot of people
02:27 that have just witnessed something,
02:28 and we can be around the corner in seconds.
02:31 Also, we can detain people quite quickly on the bikes.
02:35 Most of our offenders walk on foot anyway.
02:38 So, when they're on seconds, they've got nowhere to run.
02:42 We can get them detained straight away
02:44 and arrested and called for a car
02:46 if we require one after.
02:49 - Having officers on these electric bikes
02:51 has been really reassuring to people in Eastwood.
02:54 They can see that the officers are out and about.
02:57 There's a lot more visibility of police on the streets.
02:59 That's been reassuring.
03:01 And it's also meant that people can go
03:02 and approach the officers and speak to them,
03:04 give them intelligence a lot easier
03:07 than if they're simply in a police car driving past
03:10 where no one can speak to them.
03:11 - One of the stories I remember quite vividly
03:14 was we're both out on our bikes.
03:16 We're looking for someone in particular.
03:17 We devised a bit of a plan initially.
03:20 As there was an individual who was committing
03:21 a lot of shop thefts in the area
03:23 and potentially drug dealing in the area as well.
03:26 As a result of that, we've decided to map out where,
03:30 the best locations where he might be going.
03:33 In Eastwood, there's a lot of alleyways,
03:35 a lot of different ways that you can't access by a car
03:37 or easily by a car, one-way streets as well.
03:40 So, utilizing the bikes, we managed to split up,
03:42 cover more distance, cover more area,
03:43 use our comms on our radios as we're out on the bikes.
03:46 And I've managed to detain him on Wood Street.
03:49 There were two people there,
03:50 so I've called up for assistance with the vehicle
03:52 and also my colleague here to come and help me with,
03:54 detain them.
03:55 I've managed to stop search them,
03:57 run a name check through with him
03:59 and arrested him for a significant amount of shop thefts.
04:03 - So, the Safer Streets Programme has been
04:05 incredibly important in helping improve community safety
04:08 in Eastwood and Brockstow as a whole.
04:11 It's been a source of extra funding
04:13 that means that we can get things like these e-bikes
04:15 and improve CCTV and things that would just
04:19 kind of really help with detection of crime,
04:22 with preventing antisocial behaviour
04:25 and also giving that reassurance to the public that,
04:27 you know, we are working towards making our streets safer.
04:30 (upbeat music)