Update on policing in Newark and Sherwood from Inspector Charlotte Ellam - April 2025

Welcome to your neighbourhood policing newsletter for the Newark and Sherwood district.

The plan is for a newsletter to be produced every three months or so, to hopefully provide our community with a bit of insight into the latest local policing priorities, crime trends and some of the great work your neighbourhood policing team has been doing in recent weeks.

Current priorities in your area

I recently made the decision to change our local policing priorities for Newark and Sherwood respectively, having focused on retail crime and drugs supply in Newark town centre and shoplifting in Blidworth and Ollerton, between January and March.

While our work in these areas very much continues, our districtwide focus for the next three-month period will be on targeting retail crime, as well as stopping ASB in Newark town centre and across our parks and open spaces.

Actions on our priorities

We know tackling antisocial behaviour (ASB) is an issue that our communities feel very strongly about, which is why this has been chosen as one of our policing priorities, on and off, for some time now.

So much work goes on each day to make people aware that ASB isn’t acceptable, with our regular visible patrols aiming to provide that deterrence on the streets to hopefully prevent this behaviour.

As with other areas, we do traditionally see a rise in ASB during the school holidays. One such period saw us experience a number of incidents around the YMCA centre in Newark. On that occasion, I took the decision to issue a 48-hour dispersal order at the location, which thankfully led to the issues settling down.

A dispersal order is one of the actions at our disposal in response to ASB, but I want to stress that issuing one isn’t a decision I would take lightly, while it thankfully is a rare occurrence for Newark and Sherwood.

The public have also told us they want us to target those who feel they can steal from the shops across our area. As has been said many times, shoplifting is a blight on society and will not be tolerated by our policing teams.

In terms of reducing shop thefts, we know a lot of these offences are committed by a small number of regular offenders, which is why we send our officers out in the community each day on patrol to try and spot them. A lot of effort also goes into working closely with our local stores to help identify these offenders and gather the footage or other evidence needed to put them before the courts.

Whether out in the cars, out on foot, out on pushbikes, in uniform, or out in plain clothes, our patrols have traditionally been very successful in deterring these types of offences and catching thieves red-handed – more on that in a minute.

Did you hear about this?

The Newark team recently welcomed Sgt Kate Taylor and Sgt Rishi Thobhani as our new neighbourhood sergeants. Both of them join us from other departments from within the force and bring a wealth of experience between them.

Neither of them has wasted any time since starting, with Sgt Taylor recently catching a renowned shoplifter red-handed, while attending a shop to review CCTV of a recent theft the same man had carried out. Daimien Temple, 44, of Vessey Close, Newark, would go on to be jailed for eight months as a result.

How to contact us

Looking for help or information? Want to tell us something or report an incident? Use our simple online tool to find the best way to get in contact.

Call 101 for non-emergency enquiries. Alternatively, our Live Chat service is available from 7am to 10pm, seven days a week. Navigate back to the home page of our website and look for the blue icon in the corner.

Call 999 if:

• a serious offence is in progress or has just been committed

• someone is in immediate danger or harm

• property is in danger of being damaged

• a serious disruption to the public is likely

If you wish to anonymously report crime or suspicious behaviour, contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Want to find out who your local police officers are and how to contact them?

From the home page of our website, enter your postcode under 'Find your area' and navigate to the 'On the team' tab.