A South Wales Police van in Penarth. The Penarth police station is staffed 24/7
Latest crime figures from South Wales Police show that there has been another large year-on-year increase in crime in Penarth with well over 100 crimes a month being committed in the town.
- In September 2017 crime was up by 8.14% on the figures for September 2016
- In October 2017 crime was up by 5.5% compared with on October 2016.
These figures appear not to include a category of violent crime now labelled as “Assault with Injury” of which there were 8 cases in September 2017 and another 8 in October 2017.
The latest batch of police figures were presented to Penarth Town Council last night by Inspector David Barclay who has recently taken over from his predecessor at Penarth Inspector Gary Smart.
A library picture of Redlands Road, Penarth – where police told Penarth Council last night that a victim of violence had sustained a fractured eye socket in a suspected “racially motivated” attack
Inspector Barclay said there had been serious incident of violence on Redlands Road, Penarth in which a youth had sustained a fractured eye-socket. Investigations were being made into whether the incident had been “racially motivated” . An arrest had been made.
He also said there had been a crime “spike” in early November – a factor which is not included in the September/October figures which he had given the council last night.
Inspector Barclay highlighted domestic burglaries (10 in September 2017 and 5 in Oct0ber 2017 ) as a growing concern. Although some arrests had been made, across the Vale burglaries continue to be reported – indicating that the culprits have not yet been caught. He said it was not possible to establish any pattern for the break-ins. However the “modus operandi” was the same in most cases – a brick through the back door or patio window.
Cllr Yvonne Murphy (Labour St Augustines) demanded action from the police on drug trafficking in St Augustine’s Ward
During the council’s bi-monthly police briefings most Labour councillors ask only polite inquiries about topics like school car parking arrangements … but not Yvonne Murphy (Labour St Augustines) .
She fearlessly waded-in to ask Inspector Barclay when the police were going to do something about the increasing drug-trafficking problem in her ward – which involved drugs like cocaine. There was, she said, an area within the ward where drug dealing was prevalent.
Cllr Murphy said she had lived in the St Augustine’s Ward for 12 years but – in all that time – had “never seen a police officer there” .
Inspector Barclay – who has been in his new post for 6 weeks – said that often residents were not aware that police WERE actually patrolling their local areas. He told the councillors that when he was serving in Gibbonsdown (Barry) – where similar things had been said – he had resorted to knocking on the front-doors of residents to demonstrate that police were indeed patrolling the area.
In the latest batch of statistics the categories of specific crimes on the bi-monthly Penarth Crime Report appear to have been arbitrarily altered by the police – which makes it more difficult for local residents – who pay the South Wales Police Precept on their Council Tax Bills – to compare the performance of their local police month-on-month.
- From September the previous categories of “Theft of Motor Vehicles” and “Theft from Motor Vehicles” appear to have been amalgamated into a single category labelled “Vehicle Offences” – a category which has not been used before .
- What in September this year was called “Domestic Burglary” is now called “Residential Burglary”
- A new category called “Business and the Community Burglary” appears in the statistics for September 2017 – but fails to appear in the figures for the following month – October 2017.
- Although South Wales Police appear to be able to arbitrarily change all the other categories in their crime sheets, the force remains unable to produce specific figures for the St Augustines and Plymouth Wards of Penarth – claiming that their computer system won’t allow them do to so. These two wards are still lumped together in a long-obsolete ward called “Alexandra Ward”which disappeared in the 1990s.
According to a national newspaper
Penarth’s one of the nodes in a drug mule network .
Well it seems the Police are on the ball in Penarth , one person mentions living in Penarth in the St Augustines area for 12 years but says she has never seen the Police in all that time. But quick as a flash comes the reply , “yes we are around their even if not seen” so obviously its those “Invisible Police patrols ” employed by the local Police . And its nice to hear the Barry contributor say in Barry sometimes they “knocked on someone’s door ” to show their presence !!!!????? how reassuring to know the Police are around but unable to be seen !!?? A bit like the CTV cameras around town , that ARE WORKING , are not working , ARE WORKING , are not working , which clears up any doubt on the subject . It was nice to note at bi- monthly Police meeting Police were only asked POLITE QUESTIONS (commonly known as the easy ones) such as parking around schools etc , so as not to be too taxing or difficult . Yes nothing to worry about ,invisible Police and imaginary CTVs in Penarth , I for one can breath easy knowing how pampered we are .
Well four of them, a van and car, all with blue flashing lights, turned up to investigate noises reported as coming from inside St Pauls Church one afternoon last week.
I was working in the lane behind and probably was the one making the noises that were reported as coming from inside the church, but they did react en-masse, so they are around.