Silent Crime: Commercial Road, Portsmouth
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NewsTranscript
00:00They're just brazen. They just don't care. They come in. We don't really have any powers to stop them.
00:04Yeah.
00:05And especially in the run-up to Christmas. I mean, last year was awful. It was every single day without fail.
00:11Yeah, yeah. And sort of how much stuff do they take? How much, what's the value?
00:16It can be into the hundreds.
00:18Yeah.
00:19Yeah, obviously kids' toys. At Christmas we get high value items. They know what they're targeting and they come straight in, straight out.
00:26Yeah. And, I mean, what do the police do about this?
00:29The police have been, since we've been with Courts of Fire, the police have been brilliant.
00:35They do come in. A couple have been taken to court already.
00:41Obviously, they might come to all the shops. They can only do what they can do, can't they?
00:46Is it the same people coming back to the shop?
00:48Yeah.
00:49So you know the individuals involved, do you?
00:51We know them, yeah. Very well-known faces. It's always the same people.
00:55Right, okay.
00:56You get the odd one or two that are opportunistic, but yeah, the rest, it's targeted.
01:01Yeah. And so obviously they're banned from the shop, but they still...
01:04They're banned from the shop, they're banned from the precinct, but they still come back.
01:09Yeah. I mean, what can you do to sort of solve the problem, if you like? Is there anything you can do?
01:18Other than just being on it all the time and catching them every time, that is all you can do.
01:25I don't think you're ever going to stop it down here. There's too many people with too many problems.
01:31Like I say, it is always the same people, and we know them very well, and we know their problems.
01:38Yeah. And it's not just a problem for your shop, it's a problem all around here, isn't it?
01:42Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
01:43So is it the same people targeting the same shops?
01:46Yeah.
01:47Yeah.
01:48Yeah. So we've got the radio, and the names are all very well-known to all the shops.
01:54Yeah. And what about the Debenhams Derelict? Is that a bit of an issue, with people congregating there as well?
02:03And antisocial behaviour, is that a problem around here?
02:06I wouldn't say that, no. It's not too bad. I mean, it's the same group that hang out down there,
02:12but then that's where Helping Hands come and feed them, so they've not really got anywhere else to go down here.
02:18Yeah.
02:19But they're not specifically the troublemakers.
02:26A lot of the people aren't the ones that hang around out by Debenhams.
02:30All right. Okay.
02:32I mean, not that we see, from our point of view, but...
02:34Yeah. And when you're getting stuff stolen, do you report it every day?
02:39Yes. As often as we can do, yeah.
02:42Yeah.
02:43Obviously, we can't see it all the time. I mean, there's probably loads that get stolen that we don't even realise.
02:48Yeah.
02:49But whenever we do see it and we catch them, we always report it.
02:52So you're never deterred to not report it? You don't think it's a waste of time to do it?
02:58No. No, absolutely not. I mean, we've only been on the scheme a little while, and we definitely know there's a difference.
03:03Okay.
03:04And it has stopped a lot of people, like our regulars from before, coming back. So it's definitely working.
03:12Portsmouth High Safety CCTV has been growing in Portsmouth.
03:17And a few months ago, the pubs had come on board.
03:20So now the pubs have actually got their own radios linked into the control centre, linked into Portsmouth City Council.
03:27And we've had a couple of meetings with the police.
03:30And in Commercial Road, we've met the sergeant of the Commercial Road team, who has been absolutely fantastic.
03:39Everyone knows that there's major crime in Portsmouth, but the police are dealing with it on a day-to-day basis.
03:46And we're there as part of a tool to help him.