Bracknell

In April two new Bracknell officers joined the Crown Wood and Forest Park neighbourhood policing team: PC Lucy Chimerek and police community support officer (PCSO) Debbie Preedy. Their arrival means there are now five Bracknell officers dedicated to the area: Sgt Noel Thackaberry, myself and PCSO Matt Wright, as well as Lucy and Debbie. We also have PC Rob Newton with us for a few weeks on attachment as part of his training before he joins a reactive shift team.

In response to Bracknell residents’ concerns about people hanging around in public places, the team have been carrying out high visibility patrols around the shops off Opladen Way and Horndean Road to prevent anti-social behaviour. We’ve also had officers in uniform and plain clothes patrolling the local parks to deter under-age drinking and any associated disorder.

It’s important to engage with Bracknell youngsters rather than just moving them on: the great majority are not troublemakers and we want to establish a positive relationship with them. We make a point of dropping by the youth cafés at Crown Wood School and Forest Park community centre to say hello and have a chat.

Another of the neighbourhood priorities is theft from motor vehicles. While on our routine patrols of the area in the past few weeks, we’ve come across a number of parked cars with sat navs left on the dashboard in full view. We knocked on the owners’ doors and explained to them the importance of removing all valuable items from their vehicles. Hopefully this combination of visible police patrols and preventive action by car owners will help to reduce further incidents of theft in our neighbourhood.

Still on the subject of cars, we carried out a speed enforcement operation in Opladen Way recently, and will repeat the exercise if the need arises.

If you have any concerns about crime and anti-social behaviour in Crown Wood and Forest Park, I and my colleagues can be contacted on 0845 8 505 505.

Thames Valley Police ~ Bracknell