Silent Crime: Commercial Road, Portsmouth

The News, Portsmouth

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00:00They're just brazen. They just don't care. They come in. We don't really have any powers to stop them.

00:04Yeah.

00:05And especially in the run-up to Christmas. I mean, last year was awful. It was every single day without fail.

00:11Yeah, yeah. And sort of how much stuff do they take? How much, what's the value?

00:16It can be into the hundreds.

00:18Yeah.

00:19Yeah, obviously kids' toys. At Christmas we get high value items. They know what they're targeting and they come straight in, straight out.

00:26Yeah. And, I mean, what do the police do about this?

00:29The police have been, since we've been with Courts of Fire, the police have been brilliant.

00:35They do come in. A couple have been taken to court already.

00:41Obviously, they might come to all the shops. They can only do what they can do, can't they?

00:46Is it the same people coming back to the shop?

00:48Yeah.

00:49So you know the individuals involved, do you?

00:51We know them, yeah. Very well-known faces. It's always the same people.

00:55Right, okay.

00:56You get the odd one or two that are opportunistic, but yeah, the rest, it's targeted.

01:01Yeah. And so obviously they're banned from the shop, but they still...

01:04They're banned from the shop, they're banned from the precinct, but they still come back.

01:09Yeah. I mean, what can you do to sort of solve the problem, if you like? Is there anything you can do?

01:18Other than just being on it all the time and catching them every time, that is all you can do.

01:25I don't think you're ever going to stop it down here. There's too many people with too many problems.

01:31Like I say, it is always the same people, and we know them very well, and we know their problems.

01:38Yeah. And it's not just a problem for your shop, it's a problem all around here, isn't it?

01:42Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

01:43So is it the same people targeting the same shops?

01:46Yeah.

01:47Yeah.

01:48Yeah. So we've got the radio, and the names are all very well-known to all the shops.

01:54Yeah. And what about the Debenhams Derelict? Is that a bit of an issue, with people congregating there as well?

02:03And antisocial behaviour, is that a problem around here?

02:06I wouldn't say that, no. It's not too bad. I mean, it's the same group that hang out down there,

02:12but then that's where Helping Hands come and feed them, so they've not really got anywhere else to go down here.

02:18Yeah.

02:19But they're not specifically the troublemakers.

02:26A lot of the people aren't the ones that hang around out by Debenhams.

02:30All right. Okay.

02:32I mean, not that we see, from our point of view, but...

02:34Yeah. And when you're getting stuff stolen, do you report it every day?

02:39Yes. As often as we can do, yeah.

02:42Yeah.

02:43Obviously, we can't see it all the time. I mean, there's probably loads that get stolen that we don't even realise.

02:48Yeah.

02:49But whenever we do see it and we catch them, we always report it.

02:52So you're never deterred to not report it? You don't think it's a waste of time to do it?

02:58No. No, absolutely not. I mean, we've only been on the scheme a little while, and we definitely know there's a difference.

03:03Okay.

03:04And it has stopped a lot of people, like our regulars from before, coming back. So it's definitely working.

03:12Portsmouth High Safety CCTV has been growing in Portsmouth.

03:17And a few months ago, the pubs had come on board.

03:20So now the pubs have actually got their own radios linked into the control centre, linked into Portsmouth City Council.

03:27And we've had a couple of meetings with the police.

03:30And in Commercial Road, we've met the sergeant of the Commercial Road team, who has been absolutely fantastic.

03:39Everyone knows that there's major crime in Portsmouth, but the police are dealing with it on a day-to-day basis.

03:46And we're there as part of a tool to help him.

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