Problems with crime in our village

[cromwell]

In the last couple of months crime in our village has become a real problem. Every village will have its problems with anti-social youths, but we're experiencing a more serious crime wave. We have had tools stolen from vans, property stolen from cars, shed burglaries and proper burglaries. Most of these have happened during the night, and it's been happening every other night. In the last few days though an elderly women has been robbed and beaten in her own home by two youths who forced entry into the house and today a man tried to get into a single woman's flat during daylight hours.
And people are getting really angry about it. There is some talk (and talk is all will ever be imo) about forming a vigilante group.
It's a problem, a real problem. As the village has got bigger, police numbers have got smaller! Also ours is a very spread out village. Long roads with new estates built off them. To police it effectively at night you would need about forty coppers.
I just hope it doesn't end really badly. No joke, people are getting mad about this. In this country you are not allowed to arm yourself to defend your property and loved ones. The only real option is a big, very territorial dog.
Apparently one reason for the rise in crime is the new estates being built. Four and five bedroom properties mean money, which means more likelyhood of having things to steal.

[Workingman]

People used to move out of crime ridden cities to dormitory towns because they were safe. Now those cities are relatively safer than the towns because they are still policed. OK, the policing is crap, but it is better than it is in the outlying towns and villages. That's how the world works. Protecting yourself is the way to go.

[TheOstrich]

I suspect your village mirrors what's happening in many similar places across the country, Crommers.

We're a small town with a population of around 12,000. We have similar low-level crime such as tool thefts, car burglaries, etc but what violent crime we have had in the last couple of years (not a lot, so far) appears to me to be drug-related and concentrated on the newer "middle-class aspirational" estate south of the town. I've seen drugs being offered for sale and plenty of discarded hippy crack (nitrous oxide) cannisters; we have a direct rail link to London and you wouldn't win much money betting we have a "county line" direct into the town. We do get the occasional patrolling bobby, but the police presence is mainly the odd patrol car out of Blandford. I think there's only a dozen officers covering the whole of North Dorset.

Judging by the town's FB page, there is an anger at crime levels and lack of policing, but I haven't seen any talk of vigilantism. It would not surprise me, though, if we didn't see more communities adopting a more "proactive" approach to crime in future, but we're not quite there yet.

I would hesitate to say that cities have become more safer than dormitory towns, WM. I can't speak for your experiences in Leeds, but certainly there were many areas of Birmingham where I felt genuinely unsafe at times, certainly the City Centre after 18:00 on a Saturday night for one. I'd be interested to hear other folks' views …..

[cromwell]

We do get the occasional patrolling bobby, but the police presence is mainly the odd patrol car out of Blandford. I think there's only a dozen officers covering the whole of North Dorset..

Blimey Os, that's poor!

I would hesitate to say that cities have become more safer than dormitory towns, WM. I can't speak for your experiences in Leeds, but certainly there were many areas of Birmingham where I felt genuinely unsafe at times, certainly the City Centre after 18:00 on a Saturday night for one. I'd be interested to hear other folks' views …..

Wakefield used to be a bit of a party town. Hen and stag parties and the Westgate run, a long street where people would work their way up from one pub at the bottom and have a drink in every pub up the street, into the town centre. Those days are more or less done. In the 70's and 80's it was heaving in town on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Not now. There still is drinking and nights out, but nowhere near on the same scale. It's quieter, but police still patrol in vans on Fridays and Saturdays. What it's like in the early hours I wouldn't know and I've no intention of finding out!
I suppose it depends on the place. Big cities after nightfall, there are certainly places I wouldn't go in them. But for property crime, a lot of it happens in the villages and suburbs.

[Suff]

I understand the anger crommers.

There are other ways. Leaving a vehicle with visible tools but 100% hidden cam coverage is one option. Also having a powerful light on a trigger is an option too where the "sacrificial" vehicle is.

The tools don't have to be good, plenty of broken stuff is not visibly so.

I had my laptop bag stolen one time but the drugged up criminal found my phone number and called me. He threatened me. Got more than he bargained for though. I wonder if he still checks every laptop bag he has stolen for a trigger and semtex?? He never came after me to follow up on his threat to mug me after I advised him that if he attacked me I could legally put him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

As for cities?

I am reliably informed that the Normal city patrol in Aberdeen is 6 coppers. Aberdeen is the 4th largest city in Scotland.

[Workingman]

But for property crime, a lot of it happens in the villages and suburbs.

That is what I am talking about. There have always been bars and clubs with rowdies and scuffles at chucking out time, but people generally felt safe in their own homes in the towns and villages.

Nowadays a lot of the developments in those places are as Cromwell describes, large detached properties that reek of wealth, and for the robbers, rich pickings. My sister lives in such an area and barely a week goes by without there being an incident of some sort. It is open plan, so no front walls, but many people have taken to planting spiky bushes such as blackthorn and firethorn under windows with high side gates to the back gardens. Walking back from the local in an evening is like being in Blackpool at the illuminations - a security light goes on, then off, then the next is on, then off - and it's a fairly long road.

[cromwell]

There are rumours that some of these people are traveling from Bradford to commit crime here WM. I do like some of the suggestions from you and Suff.
I suppose I'm a bit jumpy about it because our daughter heard somebody at the side gate a couple of weeks since. The dog did too though, and she thinks his barking scared them off.
If people get into vigilante-ism then there's a risk that they will be the ones in trouble for beating a thief up; or even they might beat an innocent person up by mistake. You can see why people are finding the idea tempting though.

[Workingman]

The shrubbery thing was a police initiative that I believe has been used up and down the country. It's not perfect but it does seem to deter the opportunist burglar types. Quite a few have installed motion detection PIR cameras that lock on to a target and give an audible warning to the target that they are in operation. Expensive, but they do seem to work.

The thing is that there are just not enough police about. Where sis lives is covered by Otley police station over three miles away. It has 18 staff in three teams; one sergeant, three constables and 14 PCSOs and although their powers have been upgraded over the years many of them are designated powers on a daily operational basis. It covers a mixed rural and urban area of about 90 sq km with a population topping 100,000.

It's no wonder organised gangs leave the cities for a day or two out in the country.

[Suff]

When I wss last in Sweden the conviction stats for burglaries was 4%. The theives saw it as a risk woth taking..

[Kaz]

You should have seen the amount of vans with alarm systems logos on, on our estate last year, after our NDN's were robbed! Luckily Mick installed ours and put in new security cameras.

Ours is a small estate of four and five bed houses, as described above, in a quiet location, almost two miles from the city centre - the robbers went in through our neighbour's patio doors, took jewellery and an expensive car, and we didn't hear a thing! Another house was "done" in the exact same way later that night, and another out on the main road.

Our neighbour's son came home at 10pm to discover it, and when I tell you that his parents got home from Yorkshire before the police arrived at the scene, that about sums up the level of policing here I hardly ever see a cop on foot here, and I'm on foot in the city quite a bit

Crommers, that poor lady