Covid pandemic has created ‘hardest year' for policing

An annual report by the Shipley Neighbourhood Policing Team details how officers have had to deal with new issues that have arisen from the Covid-19 pandemic - from preventing crowds gathering at beauty spots during lockdown to criminals targeting shops that have been forced to shut.

Inspector Craig Stothers, who heads up the team, says the past year has been “the most challenging year I have experienced in 26 years of Police service.”

The report will go before members of Bradford Council’s Shipley Area Committee next Wednesday - almost a year to the day after the first lockdown began.

Members will hear that while crime rates have dropped in the Constituency, which includes Bingley, Baildon, Shipley and areas of Wharfedale over the past year, there has been a rise in online hate crime.

As well as giving members of the Committee an update on work to tackle crime in the area, such as disrupting an organised crime group in the Windhill area and tackling drug dealing in Bingley, the report highlights the pressures that have been placed on officers since the beginning of the pandemic.

Work to 'disrupt' organised crime group targeting Shipley

These include having to police situations that would have been a normal part of every day life just over a year ago - such as large groups visiting the constituency’s parks and beauty spots like Goit Stock.

The report says: “As Police we are not exempt from the same feelings of loss, and we have also felt the strain.

“The varying levels of lockdown have affected us all, again both professionally and personally. I can say that calls for service have increased during the last twelve months.

“The challenges included some real tests at rural locations such as Goit Stock, Baildon Moor and Roberts Park, however I know that this list almost endless.

“The guidelines and regulations being so new, the varied media spin really made communicating the actual powers we had been given very difficult.

“We did not get everything right, but we worked hard to resolve the issues as they came in.

“My staff whilst being professionals are still human, and have faced their own challenges, however they have worked hard to maintain our police duties, whilst the added pressure of the increased reports linked to Covid have taken their toll.”

Although there has been a fall in most crime types in the constituency, with robbery figures falling by half, the number of crimes classed as “violence without injury” rose from 2,409 in 2019/20 to 2,536 in 2020/21 - up by 127.

Insp Stothers’ report says: “Violence without injury, is a troubling figure, but it also shows the integrity in our crime recording data. Crimes such as online bullying, neighbour disputes, harassment all fall under this category, due to the nature of the calls that have increased during Covid this has also increased these types of reports.

Man arrested after £1 million cannabis farm found in Shipley

“I feel that this is the reason for the increase in anti-social behaviour calls and the increase in reported hate crime. There are no patterns as such, but there has been an increase in online hate crime.”

There was also a rise in the number of calls to the police to report anti-social behaviour - particularly last summer.

The report says this is largely down to calls about “behaviour that was not in line with lockdown restrictions in place at that time.”

Lockdown meant many businesses in the area have had to shut for months on end - with some repeatedly targeted by burglars.

Insp Stothers’ said: “Business burglary was a big worry for me, with the lockdowns leaving retail and other businesses empty and potentially vulnerable.

“Whilst in the main we have been successful in our efforts to stop any spikes, we have seen multiple attacks on a minority of premises. Due to this we obtained further funding, this has enabled overtime to be worked in the affected areas to pro-actively patrol and deal robustly with any persons unable to account for their presence in the area.”

Covid has meant that usually quiet areas have provided difficult decisions around policing.

The report says: “Bingley Rural, specifically Harden and Goit Stock, has suffered due to Covid visitors, this presented a unique set of circumstances for us and partners. T

“The land is privately owned with public right of way, parking on private roads and around the local villages. Patrols were increased and notices issued where appropriate, parking notices also issued in the locality.

“This was a very challenging issue and one that I wish to revisit to learn from when local councillors and partners can meet and review the tactics.”

Meanwhile other police operations have had to continue as normal. Referring to work in the Windhill and Wrose area, the report says: “We have had some really positive arrests and convictions in the area. We have had successful convictions of peripheral members of an organised crime group, effecting the supply chain locally.

“We have had numerous arrests for offences relating to the supply of class A and class B drugs.”

The committee will meet online at 6pm next Wednesday.