We went on patrol with police in Chesterfield - this is what happened

I arrived at Chesterfield Police Station shortly after 3pm to join PC Tammy Careless and Will Plant, from the community safety partnership team, for a patrol around the town centre and anti-social behaviour hotspots.

The latest available figures show that there were 209 recorded incidents of anti-social behaviour in Chesterfield in March and it was recently announced an extra £180,000 would be invested over a three year period to help tackle the behaviour.

We started our patrol by going around the market stalls where, almost immediately, a stallholder beckoned us over to report an individual who had been eating sweets from his stand without paying.

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Whilst PC Careless spoke to the stallholder and gave him advice on how to take the complaint forwards, Will was able to explain to me the multi-agency response to anti-social behaviour in the borough.

He said: “One thing I am really proud of in Chesterfield is how we all work together for the same goal and support individuals as best we can. We all have different resources we can tap in to and we can help signpost individuals to the right service: and a lot of the time it can feel quite intimidating, even as a victim of crime, to pick up the phone and speak to police so that’s why we like to have a visible, reassuring presence where we can start those conversations more informally.”

From there we visited Vicar Lane Shopping Centre where a community engagement event was being held outside Tesco – with Police Community Support Officers on-hand to dish out advice as well as free security alarms, and colouring kits for children.

These regular events are all part of an approach to try to de-formalise the relationship between police and the community.

PC Careless explained: “We want people to be pro-police and feel comfortable speaking to us. As a force we are always looking for ways to adapt how we work so that we can meet the needs of the community. Whether that’s with Derbyshire Alert (a system where residents can sign up to receive hyper-localised crime alerts via text message) or through these engagement events.

“(Since I have joined) I have seen us being much more responsive to these needs and building really positive relationships with people in the community.”

After about 40 minutes I was glad I had worn some sporty trainers – not least because PC Careless said a regular patrol often saw her hit upwards of 20,000 steps.

I had been surprised to see a couple of hostile reactions to seeing police out and about – both from young teenagers with one, seemingly, making a point of spitting on the floor as we walked past and another small group deliberately blaring their music as we walked past. PC Careless said that, whilst there was the occasional negative reaction, the majority of people found it ‘reassuring’ to see police on patrol.

“People can sometimes find it a bit bizarre that we’ve said hello to them as we walk past but I wake up each day motivated by getting the job done and by making positive relationships with the people we meet”, PC Careless said.

Will added: “I have only been part of the partnership since December but I can see the positive impacts that we are able to have. As a partnership we are able to support vulnerable and concerned residents by providing them with safety cameras and deterrents to help them feel safe in their home. I look at the town, though, and it feels a much more positive place than it has been in years gone by and I think that’s how we know the partnership is working.”

Just before 4.30pm another call came in over the radio to report that two people had been detained elsewhere with suspected stolen goods. As we were nearby, and the items were suspected to be stolen from Wilko, PC Careless visited the store to provide them with some advice and request that they look through their CCTV so they could find still images to match with the people that had been stopped.

To end with, I asked PC Careless if it was frustrating to deal with some of the low-level offenders on a repeated basis.

She said: “We will always try and get positive results and where our community partnership comes in is trying to nip problems in the bud and get people support before they cross past the point where we have to take criminal action – but we can’t force people to accept help.

"We win some, we lose some, but more often than not we are winning: whether that is by bringing someone to court, signposting someone to the right support, or just by encouraging people to approach us with concerns and information.

“We have got a lot of bad press, nationally, but we are good people in uniforms and we want to be trusted by the community to keep them safe. That’s why it is so important for us to provide a visible presence,” she added.