A crackdown on street crime will be launched by police in Sheffield next week as tens of thousands of students arrive in the city. Intelligence teams will help direct extra resources, including more officers on the beat, mounted patrols and police from the cycle unit, to tackle hot spot areas across the city. And operations co-ordinator, Insp Pat Casserly, had this get-tough message for criminals: “Sheffield is one of the safest cities in the country, but I consider it to be one of the most unsafe for street robbers. They are going to have a really, really hard time.” The action, which is part of Operation Impact, begins on Monday to coincide with the start of Freshers Week and is due to last for several months. Insp Casserly added that every member of the public would feel the benefits of the initiative, which will include covert operations, high-profile patrols and CCTV surveillance.

And I suppose we'll have to pay more council tax for this while the students don't... :?

Let's face it, it's not hard for the police to do MORE about crime. They'd certainly be hard-pressed to do any LESS.
Cynical, Me?
Surely not....:?

LOL! Let's hear it for cynics!!

I wouldn't mind if I ever felt the police had helped, but I've been robbed twice (once my house was completly cleared out) and they found... NOTHING! and sent me a load of crap in the post about how wonderful they were for looking... Not a big fan!!

Tell me about it.
When my car was broken into for the fourth time on the same street, they said they couldn't do anything unless the gits had left blood. (if only they had...). Not even a visit to our street even once at night to try and show willing - spose they can't be bothered to turn round at the top of the road.
If you call them for anything urgent, they spend at least ten minutes ascertaining exactly who YOU are, where you live, who you work for, what you had for breakfast, and whether you cleaned your underwear before enquiring, bored, whether the incident is still occurring...which of course it generally isn't.
Their idea of patrolling Manor, Norfolk Park and Arbourthorne at the mo seems to be sitting in at least four patrol cars up and down City Road waiting for someone to drive past a little too quickly...but I spose it saves them having to wander into the estates to stop people having bricks thrown at their heads. It might not be safe for them off the main road...
But silly me, policing football matches and new students is far more important than just getting on with the whole business of getting out on the streets doing something about crime.

Oh dear, I seem to have moved from cynical straight to bitter in one easy posting...:lol:

:lol: I agree!! It's the same everywhere! They are more worried about catching speeders than criminals, and hassling those who are breaking the law but generally minding their own business (cough) than stopping real crime like robbery or violence! They're like a 'help-vacuum'... Nice to meet a kindred spirit!! 8)

Is it just me or does the idea of having a policeman walking around seem a complete waste of time? The chances of them being anywhere near a scene of crime are slim to miniscule. Also, in my experience, blaggers tend to have lookouts positioned to spot anybody who may interrupt a crime in progress.

I agree about the policing of football matches, the clubs themselves should be responsible for all costs incurred, both inside and outside the ground.

Looking after our students is another issue. If you were a parent sending your child into the real world wouldn't you feel happier knowing that someone is looking out for them? Whatever you say about students in Sheffield they do bring an awful lot of money with them, both directly and indirectly, and are worth protecting. If parents felt that Sheffield was unsafe they may discourage their children from coming here. If that happened, we really would be in a financial mess.

PS AgentDan, there are 10 deaths a day on British roads mostly due to speeding. I've lost 2 vcrs to burglars, a small price to pay if the alternative is the police taking their eye off speeders to protect my possessions.

Originally posted by max
Is it just me or does the idea of having a policeman walking around seem a complete waste of time? The chances of them being anywhere near a scene of crime are slim to miniscule.
The main times I feel scared is when approached for money while walking around the city centre. When the police are around it acts as a good deterrent and I can normally make it the length of West Street without being asked for 20p (or being offered women, drugs etc). It's more about being a deterrent than actually catching people.

West street? I can't say I've found that to be too bad, but the asking for money does annoy me. Can't say They've dealt with the problem though because I still get hassled on my way to work every day...

The student/finance thing is a fair point though. However, as a recently ex-student, I never got one bit of support or saw one incident of a policeman/woman being helpful, rather than just sticking their nose in... Anyway (cynical again - sorry) shouldn't their priority be looking after people who live here permenantly?? We are the ones who pay forit, after all (and the council tax in sheffield is higher than anywhere else I've lived north of London!!

You're right, Max, I may have got ever so slightly carried away...but it does aggravate me that the real problem areas have been consistently abandoned by police.
Good that they will keep an eye on the young'uns pouring into town...but that doesn't stop what I see happening in the areas where I work...people increasingly feel that they have been abandoned, and that it no longer matters what happens to them.
Which is very sad, especially when they're struggling so hard to pull their estates up by the bootstrings to make them better.
It gets me grumpy....:P

On the other side of the coin, they did catch two burglars my partner reported during their stint of 'high visibility' a few months back.
One out of 500 ain't bad....:?

Originally posted by Geoff
A crackdown on street crime will be launched by police in Sheffield next week as tens of thousands of students arrive in the city. Intelligence teams will help direct extra resources, including more officers on the beat, mounted patrols and police from the cycle unit, to tackle hot spot areas across the city. And operations co-ordinator, Insp Pat Casserly, had this get-tough message for criminals: “Sheffield is one of the safest cities in the country, but I consider it to be one of the most unsafe for street robbers. They are going to have a really, really hard time.” The action, which is part of Operation Impact, begins on Monday to coincide with the start of Freshers Week and is due to last for several months. Insp Casserly added that every member of the public would feel the benefits of the initiative, which will include covert operations, high-profile patrols and CCTV surveillance.


Good news at last!!!

Don't get me wrong - if I thought it would work, I'd be in favour of it. Everyone wants less crime, obviously! I just have had my faith slowly eroded and finally shattered two years ago with aforementioned robbery... The focus of policing is on the wrong areas; I believe this is due to the semi-privatisation of the force, since they now get extra funding 'per arrest' - hence the focus on easy to spot crimes like speeding...

Actually, if I was to return to cynicism, I'd have to point out that the aforementioned burglars weren't trying to break in to a private residence, but into Homebase.
I'm afraid they might have had far less 'luck' if it had been a residential property.

The other day, in town, I saw 4 well dressed but rowdy yobs giving a police woman a lot of grief. She asked them to behave on several occasions but all she got was 'what are you going to do about it?' All that jaz.

I felt like clobbering a couple of them, but in a case like that, it would have been me that got lifted. I did what everybody else was doing. Ignored the whole thing.

What sort of society is that? Thankyou mister Blunkett. You have placed the police in the position of objects of ridicule.

How about less police chasing people who take their eyes off the speedometer for a second and slip up to 42mph in a 40 zone and instead use them for tackling crime on the street?

Originally posted by Geoff
The main times I feel scared is when approached for money while walking around the city centre. When the police are around it acts as a good deterrent and I can normally make it the length of West Street without being asked for 20p (or being offered women, drugs etc). It's more about being a deterrent than actually catching people.

Please tell me that I have read this wrong, Geoff! You haven't been offered women or drugs for 20p too?:o