Update on policing in City North from Inspector Paul Ferguson - September 2025
Welcome to your September neighbourhood policing newsletter for Nottingham’s City North, where I’ll look to give you all a bit of a flavour of some of the work we’ve been doing over the last few months.
Current priorities in your area
The priorities for the City North Neighbourhood Policing team are reviewed each quarter during a multi-agency meeting that involves our community partners.
This meeting looks at the data from crime recording and intelligence systems held by the police, the Police Crime Commissioner’s Office, and responses to the ‘What Matters’ survey submitted via the Notts Alert system, before determining which matters are most important to you.
In terms of the City North, since this July, our priorities have been tackling antisocial behaviour, drug offending and acquisitive crimes – like a burglary or a shop theft. Despite us achieving some recent successes across each of these areas – which I’ll elaborate further on below – a decision has been taken to once again roll these priorities over for a further three months.
Actions on our priorities
When it comes to the statistics, we’ve seen some great results across our chosen priority areas, in terms of the number of offences reported and the positive outcomes rate – so, that means police action leading to a suspect being arrested, charged, or sanctioned some other way.
Taking the acquisitive crimes in the City North first, burglaries, shoplifting and the overall theft rate have fallen by 34 per cent, eight per cent and 15 per cent, respectively, compared to this time last year. These good figures have been mirrored on the positive outcomes front too, with a sanction being imposed following 29 per cent of shoplifting reports, 18 per cent of thefts, and eight per cent of burglaries.
In terms of all the drug-related offences we’ve had to deal with, our 58 per cent positive outcomes rate is very high and a good illustration of how seriously we take this issue and all the good work that goes into tackling this. On the flip side of that, the total number of drug offence reports has risen by 24 per cent though, which is precisely why we’ve kept it as a policing priority. I would argue though that this increase in reports shows the proactive work the team are doing, as we only record drug offences where possession or supply offences are identified and drugs are recovered. Bearing this in mind, the increase shows we have taken more drugs off our streets, which we can all agree is a positive thing.
Last but no means least, I’m happy to say we’ve managed to maintain the positive trend around reducing ASB in all its forms, with a drop of 25 per cent in offences reported to us, compared to the same time last year, which when you consider this period includes the summer months when ASB typically increases, is a good figure to highlight too.
Although we are seeing some healthy reductions, neither myself or my teams are complacent, so know there is more still to do. Clearly, we cannot deal with the issues affecting the area without the support of local residents, businesses, and partners. It will be of no surprise to anyone that there are clear links between drug use and acquisitive crimes, whether that be burglary, shop thefts or vehicle crime.
These offences, along with the ASB linked to the dealing of these substances, causes misery to many. We are committed to tackling this and I would encourage anyone with information about such activity to report it to the police on 101, or via Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. Please don’t assume that anyone else has reported it. The information people have could be the missing piece in the jigsaw and may be the information we need to support a warrant being granted by the courts to allow us to take enforcement action.
For anyone that missed it, we’ve had lots of positive results relating to each of our priority areas in recent weeks…
Did you hear about this?
The Bestwood neighbourhood team had a triple win when they arrested three thieves trying to steal from the same shop in Beckhampton Road on back-to-back days in August. Liam Newton, 31, Wayne Lee, 55, and Stacey Blackham, 39, were all caught red-handed while shoplifting. The trio all found themselves in the same building again a few days later – this time to be sentenced at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court! Newton, of Wendling Gardens, Arnold, and Lee, of Chatsworth Drive, Hucknall, were locked up for 10 weeks and six weeks, respectively. Meanwhile, Blackham, of no fixed address, was made the subject of a community order.
The Bulwell team also had three good jobs of their own that I want to highlight. The first two related to the seizure of drugs, with the officers executing two warrants – one of the best tactics available to us in tackling drug activity – a few weeks apart from one another. Two suspects were arrested after the team discovered cocaine, cannabis and a Samurai sword inside one address, before two more were voluntarily interviewed after Class B drugs were uncovered during another raid.
A few days before that second warrant, the officers held an afternoon of action around Bulwell Hall aimed at stopping off-road bikes – one of the ASB offences we get the most complaints about. Teaming up with the force’s off-road bike and drone teams as part of the operation, our officers were able to seize an electric bike that was causing a nuisance in the area, which was a great result.
How to contact us
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a serious offence is in progress or has just been committed
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someone is in immediate danger or harm
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property is in danger of being damaged
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a serious disruption to the public is likely
If you wish to anonymously report crime or suspicious behaviour, contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
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