Police chief vows to ‘widen the net’ in tackling serious, violent and organised crime in Northamptonshire over next three years

Chief Constable Nick Adderley has “widened the net on crimes” where Northamptonshire Police will focus its greatest attention on serious, violent and organised crime over the next three years.

Violence against women and girls and drugs harm are also identified as “Matters of Priority”, which the chief pledged will be the “focus of relentless activity between now and 2025.”

Previously, priorities have changed on an annual basis. But the new three-year plan has added extra scope of previous targets, which included knife crime, anti-social behaviour and domestic abuse.

But Mr Adderley vowed: “The shift to a three-year focus on these most serious crimes, those which post the most threat and harm to the people of Northamptonshire, will give us an even firmer grip on how we will continue to fight crime, protect people, bring offenders to justice, and keep the most vulnerable safe.

“This time the net has widened and our focus intensified for even longer on those who seek to cause misery to law-abiding people right across this county.

"We will be unwavering in our pursuit of these offenders over the next three years and I know, with the help of the communities we serve, we will succeed.

“Our Matters of Priority and the crime types which sit within them, will be the focus of relentless activity between now and 2025.

"The public have told us that these are the areas they want action and we will honour that call by doing so and doing so relentlessly.

“Only a couple of weeks ago I reported on the very significant progress we made against the four areas identified in 2021-22 — knife crime, domestic abuse, serious organised crime and anti-social behaviour — and the successes we have achieved are vital in terms of building trust and confidence in the force.”

The priority areas being targeted were identified in part based on the actual threat and risk they pose for communities, but also on intelligence gathered and because the public indicated this is where they want police to apply the most pressure.

As well as defining clear targets for reducing offending, driving up convictions and increasing victim satisfaction, a range of strategies will be adopted to improve performance.

These include improved intelligence gathering, further training for officers, building more effective partnership-working and greater use of technology and innovation, including demographic mapping to target and engage communities at particular risk.

Mr Adderley added that drugs continue to be a catalyst for neighbourhood crimes such as burglary, vehicle theft, street robbery and wider organised criminality.

In particular, the force will continue its relentless focus on tackling and dismantling County Lines gangs and addressing anti-social behaviour, especially involving young people at risk of escalating from urban street gangs to more organised crime groups.

Combating serious and organised crime will include emerging threats posed by cyber-crime and fraud, breaking up labour and sexual exploitation and human trafficking.

Focus on violence against women and girls intensified in the past 12 months with the force reporting a fall in the number of repeat victims and a rise in successful outcomes for perpetrators.

Stalking and harassment will also be subject to increased focus.