From Inspector Alex Maguire
Borough Commander – Community Policing

Our Safer Neighbourhood team focuses on tackling problems in specific areas. If the residents have any concerns or recognise an increase in Anti-Social Behaviour in a particular area, please contact us. We also have a Uniform response team, and a Uniform proactive team, so we are able to target areas with the right resources if required. We also have the Roads policing Unit and casualty reduction unit, who have some capacity to support us in the Borough.
Our crime trends that we have been seeing in the North of the Borough recently include Catalytic Converter Thefts and Burglaries. The numbers are still low for burglaries due to a lot of proactive work we have been doing, and some successes our Burglary Investigation team have been having getting convictions with Offenders. We recently convicted a group of three travelling in from London to commit burglaries around the North of Reigate & Banstead. All three got sentences in excess of three years!
Catalytic Converter thefts became the most prolific crime type during the pandemic, but this is also reducing now. It has been difficult to convict offenders for this, but we have done a lot of preventative operations with Sutton (Met Police) and also Kent and Thames Valley Police, to target travelling criminals that had been hitting our areas.

In relation to both burglaries and Cat Thefts we have received funding from Councillors to increase our numbers of ANPR cameras in and around our Northern borders with the Met. These are Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras, that allow us to trace vehicles and flag up for us when an offending vehicle is entering our area.
In addition we have a number of Catalytic Converter Marking Kits, and we can distribute them to residents who are interested. They come with traceable marking for the Cat and stickers for your vehicle to deter offenders.
We also have Selecta DNA kits available for distribution for residents. You can mark property in your home, this is then traceable if your property is stolen and recovered. In addition we will increase the signage in the local area warning travelling offenders that these areas are protected by Selecta DNA marking. In the past we have found this is a successful deterrent.
We are working hard with partners to reduce violence and ASB in the Borough. Patrols of Parks and Town centres by my uniform officers and partner agencies such as Reigate and Banstead Borough Council’s Joint Enforcement Team, Youth Services and Street pastors have contributed in a reduction in ASB, despite the time of year and weather. We will continue to deal robustly with offenders, using ASB legislation if someone is regularly causing problems in a locality, and using dispersal orders to deal with groups of disorderly behaviour.
Violence and sexual offences appear quite high on the ‘Police.uk’ website, but these numbers differ with our recording methods. These high numbers would include Domestic offences, which are often recorded as a violent crime, these could also include assaults between youths, assaults and threatening behaviour in Schools. Sexual offences would also include incidents over social media, phones, use of the internet, when images are shared against other persons consent. This is quite a common offence amongst young people, our Youth Engagement officers are working hard with Schools, Colleges and Youth groups to educate around these types of offences. Preventing offences of Violence against Women and Girls is a Priority for us as a Force, therefore our resources are often deployed on areas where the public have stated they don’t always feel safe. We are working with partners to improve the environment in those areas to make them safer places to visit.
On that note, we have a fantastic relationship with the youth Group at Tadworth (the MYTI Youth Club). Steve brought a football team of young lads aged 13-16 over to a Surrey Police tournament that was held in Woking a few months ago. This was supported by Chelsea FC and involved teams from Boroughs all over the County, some considerably older than the Tadworth team. Steve and the team made the Semi-finals, only just losing to the eventual winners. One of the boys from MYTI received a special award from Chelsea FC for showing the best attitude and values on the day.
I will get in touch again shortly with some positive results that we have pending for some criminal activities that we have disrupted and are prosecuting, taking drugs and violence out of your community, making it a safer place.
Thanks for your interest and support.
Alex Maguire