Crime in Birches Head and Central Forest Park, Stoke-on-Trent

Local residents have expressed concerns over drug use in the local neighbourhood. Our local officers are working hard to collate intelligence which allows us to action Warrants and work with the council regarding tenancy of offenders. If you suspect illegal drug use in your local area, we encourage members of the public to report this to police using 101, the online reporting system or Crimestoppers. We will work with partners to support persons where possible but will also look to disrupt and be robust regarding repeat offenders.

Police are aware of a concern from local residents regarding residential burglaries. Members of public are reminded to keep all doors and windows locked, keep valuables in a safe place and ensure car keys (especially keyless entry) are kept away from the front door and in an RFID pouch/box if able. We currently have an operation running and a force burglary team which is looking to improve our response to residential burglaries ensuring all enquiries can be completed quickly and are more likely to lead to an offender. Residents are also encouraged to sign up to neighbourhood alert where you can receive updates on crime, actions, prevention advice and more in your local area.

One of the most common issues in this local area is neighbour disputes. Local officers will always try to support residents and encourage mediation to reduce the issues in the first instance. If persistent issues continue, we will work alongside the council and housing associations to ensure that persons are abiding by the law and conditions of tenancy. The local authority can also deal with private owned issues if they are deemed to be anti-social behaviour and breach this legislation. In extreme cases, the police can assist with orders being placed on offenders and even look to terminate tenancy or put a closure order on an address.

Local officers have been working hard to proactively identify repeat offenders in order to prevent further victims of vehicle crime. We are using intelligence and information to co-ordinate increased high visibility patrols in the area, and there has been recent arrests as a result of this which can be seen in the reduction of this particular crime for this area.

We are aware of the on going concerns raised by residents and members of the community about the use of off road bikes. As a result, our road crime team will continue to spend time in the areas. We have arranged targets operations using a variety of resources including our road crime team, Staffs off road bikes, drones and the fixed wing plane. This has been on going through the summer. This has also involved local officers engaging with petrol stations schools and joint visits with local housing officers to address problem properties. Operation Transom and Operation Reclaim is our response to nuisance off-road bikes. In conjunction with the Local Authority, we are trying to identify riders of the bikes, both through police reported incidents and information received by the Local Authority. Where the evidence allows, we are carrying out seizures of bikes and prosecuting riders. There have been occasions where riders have been identified as residing in Local Authority housing and tenancy breach action has been taken.