Police Perspective: New look for neighbourhood policing in Doncaster

We saw the country celebrate as part of the Jubilee celebrations that quickly turned to grief following the sad death of HM Queen Elizabeth II. We watched and even played host here in Doncaster to major sporting events such as the Rugby League World Cup, the Lioness’ monumental win in the women’s Euros and the football World Cup. We also saw records break as temperatures reached never-before seen highs in the summer, resulting in a number of fires in our region. And of course we welcomed King Charles III and the Queen Consort to Doncaster for a historic day where the town officially became a city.

Behind all of those events and incidents was a huge amount of planning and resilience and I want to extend my thanks to all our officers, staff and colleagues from partner organisations who worked hard last year to make Doncaster a safer place to visit.

It was a challenging and busy year for everyone, but a rewarding and unforgettable one. We already have some exciting changes in store for this year.

We’ll be launching a fourth Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) which will help us to provide an even better service to communities across Doncaster on 9 January. The Doncaster North NPT covering the Adwick, Askern, Roman Ridge, Bentley and Sprotbrough areas of the city will officially launch. Led by Inspector Sebastian Dent, the team will be based out of Davies House Police Station.

The move from three to four NPTs will closer align our neighbourhood structure with the council’s localities model, enabling better joint working and an enhanced service for you. Our neighbourhood teams already work very closely with colleagues at Doncaster Council and other partners, but this restructure will make working together even more effective.

In the east of the district, Armthorpe Parish Council have leased a building on Hatfield Lane. Officers and PCSOs who cover Armthorpe, Edenthorpe and Kirk Sandall will use this building as a drop-in base when they are on duty. This means the team will be able to spend more time working in their area, without having to travel back and forth to Thorne Police Station. This will help to increase police visibility in these communities, and allow for closer working with our partners, as Doncaster Council’s Stronger Communities team, St Ledger Homes and the enforcement team will also use the building. The team will hopefully move in early in the new year.

Our work to target and disrupt organised crime gangs involved in drugs production and violent crime in the city will continue this year. Since the end of September last year, officers from our neighbourhood and Fortify teams have been joined by specialist teams from across the force and partner agencies to intensify our work to tackle organised crime gangs. We have carried out warrants, stop searches, vehicle stops, open land searches, and high visibility and covert patrols.

This activity has resulted in the arrest of over 26 people for various offences including possession with intent to supply Class A drugs, possession with intent to supply Class B drugs, forced labour, production of a Class B drug and shoplifting. Around 900 cannabis plants have been seized with an estimated street value of £900,000, as well as significant amounts Class A drugs. A huge amount of cash has also been recovered, and various weapons including a sawn-off shotgun, an imitation firearm, crossbow, machetes and a zombie knife have also been removed from the streets. Indeed, since the last week of November 2022, we have recovered six illegally held firearms across the borough. This is an indication of our determination to work proactively to disrupt and prosecute criminal groups that cause harm to our communities.

This work is absolutely vital in our efforts to rid serious and organised crime from our streets and every seizure is a huge step in the right direction. Some of the weapons we’ve seized could have ended up in the wrong hands, or even worse, resulted in loss of life. I am hopeful for even more positive results this year.

We will also see an increase of officers in Doncaster under the Home Office’s 20,000 officer uplift campaign. Having more officers means we will be able move more into our neighbourhood teams to tackle localised community issues and work better with our partners. I look forward to hopefully welcoming these officers in the coming months.

I look forward to sharing the good work our officers are continuing to deliver in the coming months.