In this months newsletter you will read about some of the things the team have been doing  in the first month of 2025.

This year you can continue to expect a visible presence in your neighbourhoods, proactive work and tackling the issues that matter to you the most as can be shown in the launch of the Neighbourhood Policing Pledge.

In 2025, we also continue to see extra patrols targeting anti-social behaviour and serious violence as part of Operation Enhance. 

These are extra patrols funded by money secured by the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner to target anti-social behaviour and violence in hotspot areas.

You can also report issues online: www.cumbria.police.uk/report-it

Sergeant Dave Macdonald

Neighbourhood Policing Pledge

On 16 January, Cumbria Constabulary and Cumbria’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner  launched a new pledge centred around neighbourhood policing.

The new pledge aligns us to the national pillars of Neighbourhood Policing and ensures we deliver the government Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee.

The pledge focuses on ten core priority areas of neighbourhood policing:

• Neighbourhood Policing Model
• Maintaining a dedicated a Neighbourhood Policing model for each locality supported by PCSOs and Special Constables​
• Contact and accessibility​
• ensuring NPTs are visible and easily accessible
• Increasing dedicated neighbourhood resources​
• a commitment to dedicated Special Constables within each NPT
• Rural Crime Team
• Maintaining the dedicate rural crime team following its successful implementation
• Improving equipment and technology
• Investing in equipment and tech​ to improve the capability of each NPT
• Engagement, Visibility and Reassurance
• Engaging with communities and providing a visible, reassuring presence through community meetings
• Communication
• improving our communication with local communities
• Tackling crime and anti-social behaviour
• Listening to our communities and working with partners to address ASB and crime
• Making our roads safer​
• adopting a partnership approach around prevention, communication and engagement to reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on our roads
• Developing our Neighbourhood workforce
• committing to the College of Policing’s future roll out of the Neighbourhood Policing Programme

Chief Constable Rob Carden, together with Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner David Allen, launched the pledge today at an event at Cumbria Police Headquarters in Penrith.

A number of elected local councillors also attended the event where the structure of the pledge was outlined along with the key deliverables of how we will measure performance.

Chief Constable Rob Carden said: “Cumbria Police is committed to neighbourhood policing, which remains firmly at the heart of the organisation.

“Cumbria and its geography bring some unique policing challenges, with many rural communities and around 42.2 million visitors into the Lake District every year.

“These challenges highlight the real need for maintaining a positive relationship with our residents, business owners and visitors and building trust and confidence in our policing response.

“This pledge further reinforces our ongoing commitment to providing a quality policing service for the people of Cumbria through providing a visible policing presence and prompt response to issues you say matter the most.

“I am proud to be launching this new pledge today, in partnership with the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, which sets out how we will deliver this service to our communities and what our communities can expect from us.”

David Allen, Cumbria's Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner said: "I promised the public that I would put Police back on the beat, with named visible officers that they know and trust. 

" I understand how important to you seeing named police officers in your local communities is, preventing and tackling anti-social behaviour, theft and crime. Residents bring this up with me time and time again, I am listening to you and today's pledge is about responding to what the public want from their police force.

"I started my career as a Neighbourhood Bobby, I know communities want to see named officers in their communities, this is the start of that journey, and I will be working with the Chief Constable to build on our neighbourhood policing model."

The public can find out who their named local Police Officers are by visiting Your area | Cumbria Police

The pledge will be monitored by Cumbria's Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner David Allen where he will be able to measure the Force’s progress at a local level.

We, the Police and Crime Commissioner and partners, secured £1 million of extra funding in the Summer of 2024 to fund extra patrols in 18 areas, identified by statistical analysis as the county's hotspot areas of anti-social behaviour and serious violence.

These areas include areas of Carlisle, Barrow, Workington, Whitehaven, Kendal, Penrith, Maryport, Cleator Moor, Ulverston and Bowness-on-Windermere.

More than six months into the operation, we want to find out more about your views on anti-social behaviour and serious violence in your area.

Please take five minutes to complete this survey: https://orlo.uk/MR1eS

Camera Registry Programme

Residents across Cumbria are being encouraged to register their CCTV or doorbell camera so officers can accelerate investigative enquiries and bring more criminals to justice.

Connect Cumbria enables officers to access a map detailing pre-registered CCTV or doorbell cameras in a location of a crime.

When a crime takes place, officers can look on the Fusus by Axon portal and see immediately which businesses and residential properties close to the scene have CCTV or doorbell cameras, and therefore may have vital evidence.

To register your CCTV or doorbell camera, please visit: Home - Connect Cumbria

If you are having problems registering your address, you can view the privacy FAQ's for the solution here: Privacy FAQs - Connect Cumbria

StreetSafe is a service that allows you to report safety concerns in public places without giving us your name.

This includes issues like poorly lit streets, abandoned buildings, or vandalism, as well as instances where you feel unsafe due to someone following or verbally abusing you.

Report an issue here: StreetSafe | Cumbria Police

Your local officers

Want to know who your local officers are?

Simply go to our website - www.cumbria.police.uk

Scroll down the home page and you can browse different areas to see who your local team are - or enter your postcode.

Not only will you be able to find out who your named local officers and PCSOs are, you will also be able to view our local policing priorities and details of any meetings or events we will be attending. 

Independent Advisory Group (IAG) Cumbria Police

Cumbria Constabulary are now recruiting for Independent Advisory Group (IAG) members from all communities that live and work within Cumbria. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute towards improving policing and wider service delivery throughout Cumbria.

This is a voluntary role and we welcome applications from all members of communities within Cumbria to contribute to providing, constructive and impartial advice that will enhance our service delivery.

To apply fill out the form here: Apply to join an Independent Advisory Group (IAG) | Cumbria Police

More than 200 drink and drug driving arrests coincides with zero fatal road traffic collisions in December

More than 200 drink and drug driving arrests were made during December as part of Cumbria Constabulary’s road safety operation - Operation Limit.

Officers stopped almost 3,000 vehicles in total and made 206 arrests on suspicion of drink or drug driving, being unfit or failing to provide.

Of those arrested, 120 were on suspicion of driving whilst over the limit for drugs and 45 on suspicion of driving whilst over the limit for alcohol. A further 41 were arrested either failing to provide or Section 4 driving or attempting to drive whilst unfit. Read more here.

Cumbria Police supports national month-long firearms amnesty

Cumbria Police is holding a four-week Firearms Amnesty for Turkish manufactured top-venting blank firers (TVBFs) which are now illegal to possess following testing by the National Crime Agency and policing.

The amnesty will take place between 3 to 28 February 2025, after which anyone in possession of a top-venting blank firer (TVBF) could be subject to prosecution and up to 10 years of imprisonment.

Tests by the National Crime Agency and policing, funded by the Home Office, show models produced by four Turkish manufacturers are readily convertible and therefore illegal. Read more here

Operation Enhance Update: More than 2,500 hours of extra patrols conducted as ASB continues to fall in hotspot areas

Six months into Cumbria Constabulary’s dedicated operation tackling antisocial behaviour and serious violence in the county has resulted in more than 2,500 hours of extra patrols and a significant reduction in antisocial behaviour.

Operation Enhance sees extra police patrols in areas identified as hotspots for anti-social behaviour and/or serious violence across the county.

The operation has been made possible thanks to £1 million of extra funding secured by Cumbria’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner from the Government’s Hotspot Response Fund to target anti-social behaviour (ASB) and serious violence in hotspot areas across the county. Read more here.