A tougher approach to tackling crime was promised by the new Royal Borough area police commander Superintendent Tim De Meyer when he spoke to Ascot Neighbourhood Watch scheme co-ordinators at their October meeting.

Supt  De Meyer, a former Metropolitan Police CID officer, said his message to local police was to act as well and quickly as they could. The target was to solve and reduce as much burglary and other crimes as possible.

 “Burglars will carry on burgling if they are not caught – and the quicker we act the more crimes we will prevent,” he said.

One of his concerns was that police did not always use their existing powers to move fast against criminals. Some officers feared that their careers might be threatened by over zealous use of their powers, but he believed the opposite was true.

Because it just was not possible to put a police constable on every street corner he believed the police had to reassure the public in other ways, such as attending a scene of crime quickly after a call and making swift arrests after receiving information.

Supt De Meyer praised Neighbourhood Watch, and in particular the Ringmaster message system, for its “absolutely magnificent” job in helping prevent crime, and providing vital information when it has taken place.

“Why make it easy for criminals?” he asked.  “The more they have to do to get into premises the more likely they are to make mistakes and get caught – or they’ll just give up and go elsewhere.”

He acknowledged that the police needed to look at better handing of calls that did come in.  One of the difficulties was caused by the remote Police Enquiry Centres, who were often not familiar with outlying areas like Ascot, and did not always pass on information immediately to enable the local police to act quickly (see item below about ringing the police).

Finally, he reassured the meeting that there were no plans to close Ascot police station, or to reduce the manpower which is currently two down due to staff moves.

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Ringing the police

Some NW members have experienced problems when ringing the 0845 8 505 505 Thames Valley Police number with non-emergency, but nevertheless important, information.

Jeffrey Pick, NW Administrator for the Royal Borough, has issued a guide which is available (to contact him see details on back page). This is a summary.

There are four call centres at Milton Keynes, Police Headquarters Kidlington, Abingdon and Windsor. When they respond, they do not indicate their location.

I recommend that you initiate the conversation by asking which PEC you are speaking to.  Use the jargon ‘PEC’. This shows you know about Police Enquiry Centres and where they are - you obviously know what you are doing. It will help to speed through your call.

If you are speaking, say to Milton Keynes, you will have to help the operator with more local detail:  roads in and out, best way of approach for police cars etc.  Give them the benefit of your local knowledge.

There are some preliminaries to go through.  The Home Office requires that the police record various stats about callers and those pieces of information are asked before you can explain why you are calling.  Their computer software system is such that they must enter each individual item, before it allows them to proceed to the next.  Hence you will be (continued overleaf)