Southampton Police Target Crime Hotspots

A new way of tackling crime hotspots in Southampton's being tried out by police.

Operation Deluge will see up to 30 officers sent into a particular area to target robberies, burglaries and anti-social behaviour.

Hampshire Police say it's being launched as a pilot scheme to help tackle the issues and improve the situation for those that live and work in trouble areas. Initially Shirley and the city centre will be targeted.

The operation will see a large number of uniformed police officers on foot, in cars and on bikes put into a crime hot-spot area on certain dates to deter those causing problems and deal with those who persist.

Officers will also deal with any other local crime issues at the time making best use of the resources.

The operation will see as many as 30 additional officers go into an area at a time, made up not only of Southampton officers but specialised teams such as the Force Support Unit and Roads Policing Unit.

Similar schemes have been used in other countries, such as the United States, to tackle spikes in crime.

Southampton's police commander, Superintendant James Fulton said:

"This is a pilot scheme and if it proves successful, which we think it will be, then we will continue it long-term. We are always looking at new ways to tackle crime and we know that anti-social behaviour and the crime associated with it is a big concern to
those people in the areas affected.

"It goes almost without saying that burglaries and robberies are issues that everyone wants tackled as well.

"We hope Operation Deluge will help cut crime in the areas targeted significantly. We have made huge steps to prevent and detect crime over recent years with 2012-13 seeing an 11% reduction in anti-social behaviour and 16% fall in all crime. We will continue to work with our partners and the communities of Southampton to keep crime as low as possible.

"I'd urge anyone who does suffer from crimes such as anti-social behaviour to make sure they let their local safer neighbourhoods police team know so we can plan where best to put our resources."