In Wiltshire, a Christmas crime prevention campaign has been launched in Swindon town centre to tackle crime over the festive period. Operation Dasher has been launched by the Swindon Town Centre Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT).
Dasher is an operation dedicated to policing the town centre during the day – including late night shopping – during Christmas. It focuses on the policing efforts as part of Wiltshire Police’s commitment to the Swindon Community Safety Partnerships Christmas Safety Campaign. The NPT will deploy a number of crime prevention strategies that will include increased high visibility and covert patrols.
The campaign is being done in partnership with inSwindon, the town’s retailers, store security staff and licensed premises.
Central NPT Inspector Inspector Adrian Burt said: “Crime and anti-social behaviour during the day time remain relatively low. Our partners in the town; the retailers, store security staff, inSwindon and centre managements firms have a shared commitment and responsibility to maintain this during the busy festive period when an increase in opportunistic crime can occur.
“Our aim is it ensure Swindon town centre is a safe and pleasant place to visit. The Day Safe network is a valuable resource to this and information sharing assists in both the prevention and detection of crime.”
Town centre Community Beat Manager PC Paul Bezzant added: “The increased footfall in the town can see an increase in opportunistic crime. In conjunction with our partners, under Operation Dasher, we will robustly police those insistent on committing crime and anti-social behaviour in the town. We effectively use our offender management strategies to deal with those persistent offenders and there is a great team ethos amongst are partners in the town.
“The Day Safe network with our shared commitment gives the town an invaluable resource. There is a real team effort with more pairs of eyes looking out to curb crime and anti-social behaviour.”
As part of the campaign, officers from the NPT will be available at The Parade (outside Debenhams) in the town centre between 10am and 2pm on Saturday 14th December 2013.
