with Inspector Mark Gamlyn
I’d like to start my first column for South Leeds Life by introducing myself to you all. I’m Mark Gamlyn and I’m the new Neighbourhood Inspector for South Leeds.
Having originally started my career with Nottinghamshire Police, I moved up to West Yorkshire seven years ago and spent the first two years of my service based here at Elland Road as a Response Inspector. Since then, I have worked in a number of areas including West Leeds and Force Headquarters. So I’m really pleased to be back where I first started – leading a team of fantastic, hard working officers in the communities of South Leeds.
Joining us this month will be Sergeant Dan Ryder who has transferred to us from Thames Valley Police where he worked in a similar role and he will be responsible for the teams working in Middleton and Belle Isle.
I think it’s really important to mention that we are facing significant call demand at the moment. It is probably the busiest I have known it since I moved to the area and it whilst we all appreciate the nice warm weather, for us as Police Officers, it means even more calls for service! Rest assured we are working extremely hard to serve you as best we can, please bear with us as we try our best to balance proactivity and crime reduction with reassurance patrols and assisting with handling calls.
Due to the high call demand, our contact centre staff are busy and prioritise emergency calls, so if the 101 number is busy, you can report incidents online via our website. This process is quick and easy, and it means you don’t need to wait in a queue. We will still review these reports quickly and respond just as we would if you spoke to someone on the phone. But please remember, if it is an emergency, call 999 immediately.
As we move into the summer months, reports of Anti-Social Behaviour inevitably increase. We appreciate just how much ASB impacts on our communities and we continually review our deployments as well as run proactive operations to target areas where we have significant issues. Sometimes you will see a visible presence, sometimes our officers work in plain clothes or under cover.
We work closely with our partners including Leeds City Council and our elected members to problem solve and disrupt criminal activity. In support of this, we will be running a number of operations and initiatives as part of National ASB Awareness Week, which runs from 3-9 July.
As I’m on the subject of operations, I thought I’d update you on the results of our Combined ‘Day of Action’ which we ran a few weeks ago. We run days like this throughout the year alongside our day to day work and they are an opportunity to utilise specialist resources from across the force to target ongoing issues. This time we worked with colleagues from our Off-Road Bikes team, Roads Policing and Police Intercept Team, as well as partners from Leeds Anti-Social Behaviour Team, White Rose Shopping Centre and HMRC.
Our proactive traffic operation resulted in 2 arrests, 6 vehicle seizures, 12 traffic offence reports and we seized thousands of pounds of cash used in crime. We also executed warrants at a number of addresses involved in drug use and supply, which resulted in a number of arrests. Working with HMRC, we targeted two shops which were involved in the sale of counterfeit goods, and selling alcohol, cigarettes and vapes to under-age children. In total, over 8,000 counterfeit cigarettes, 2.5kg of tobacco, 200 illegal vapes and 90 litres of vodka were seized and enforcement action taken.
Going forwards, my plan is to give you some updates on the work we’re doing as well as a focus on a different topic each month. But in the meantime, if you have ever considered a career in the Police, we are currently recruiting for a number of roles including Police Officers, PCSOs and Contact Staff. A career in policing is both challenging and rewarding in equal measure, but you can make a real difference. Please don’t hesitate to speak to one of the team if you want more information.
This post was written by Inspector Mark Gamlyn of the Leeds South Community Policing Team
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