Lancashire police and crime update (1 August 2024)

Lancashire's police and crime commissioner Clive Grunshaw with an update from Preston City Centre

Transcript

00:00Clive Gunshall, Police and Crime Commissioner for Lancashire. So what I've been doing today is I've

00:04been going around the centre of Preston with representatives of the local Preston business

00:12community and also Preston City Council to have a look at the real hot spots, the areas of

00:21anti-social behaviour, areas where we see young people congregating, causing problems, some of

00:29the issues around shoplifting which is becoming an epidemic and really working on the solution for

00:35that. The solution is more police officers in the city centre engaging with the business community,

00:43engaging with the public, using the powers that have been provided to us by the incoming Labour

00:50government about community orders, about the focus on retail crime and how now that will be

00:58criminalised in terms of attacks on shop workers. There's got to be a real focus on making sure that

01:05shop workers are kept safe, that our areas where we have anti-social behaviour and grot spots and

01:11let's face it there are some real areas where people wouldn't want to be, that they are tackled

01:17straight away. We're getting the partnerships together put in place to do that so I'm confident

01:24that with this partnership approach, working with the City Council, working with the business

01:29community, with the new powers that are being given to us, that you will see a real difference

01:35within Preston. But this is not just about Preston, this can be replicated across the rest of

01:41Lancashire as well. So I will be out and about in your local town centres, in your local community

01:48doing exactly the same thing. So watch this space and working together

01:54we can make sure that the local business areas are improved.