Chichester Police hotspot event: Officer says 'crime is being reduced'

The event took place on Friday, August 30 at Chichester Cross.

Transcript

00:00What we're doing today is an engagement event to reach out to the community of Chichester

00:03to reassure them that Sussex and Chichester is a safe place to be.

00:06However, we're using a multitude of tactics, engagement today

00:10to target antisocial behaviour and serious violence.

00:12What I want to reassure the public is when we talk hot spots,

00:14we're seeing a small rise in antisocial behaviour and serious violence,

00:19which we want to eradicate.

00:21So far in West Sussex alone, across our hot spots,

00:23we've seen a 19.3% reduction in antisocial behaviour,

00:26a 3.5% reduction in violence involving injury

00:29and a 50% reduction in knife crime.

00:31When we see antisocial behaviour and we're looking at serious violence,

00:34there is an inherent link between the two,

00:36and actually trying to make sure that whilst we're targeting that behaviour,

00:39what we do see is an increase in potentially youth crime as well,

00:42linked to that antisocial behaviour,

00:44and trying to give diversionary opportunities to individuals to say,

00:47come to the town centre, but actually let's police it,

00:50but also give other opportunities as well.

00:52The engagement van's here for us and my team to be able to engage with the community,

00:55but the gaming van is to just give one of a number of options.

00:58We also work with Creative Beats within Chichester as well,

01:02for individuals that might like music,

01:05and trying to offer a diverse range of activities,

01:07such as football through the Brighton Ho Foundation,

01:09using various different options and saying,

01:12come engage with us, enjoy it, have a safe place to go,

01:14have a safe place to have fun whilst driving down antisocial behaviour.