Police, Neighbourhood Update & Community Speed Watch

Sonning Local Police Team

In terms of local policing in Sonning, our local support team is made up of the following:

  • PC Giles Murphy - Neighbourhood Officer
  • Jason Stavely - Community Support Officer
  • Jackie Daniels - Community Support Officer
  • Christine Seal - Neighbourhood Watch Administrator

To support their efforts and aid in communicating with the residents of Sonning, the Thames Valley Alert system is an extremely useful vehicle.

Thames Valley Police believe that by improving the flow of information between the community and its police, we can all make a greater impact in the prevention and detection of crime and anti-social behaviour.

The Thames Valley Alert System site provides an invitation for you to participate in the exchange of information with Thames Valley Police, Neighbourhood Watch and other community groups. Upon joining you are invited to register to become a registered recipient of messages of information, crime alerts or witness appeals local to the area in which you live or work in a way that suits your needs and lifestyle by email, text or telephone.

As a registered recipient you will not only benefit from two-way messaging but may also learn about those in your community subject of antisocial behaviour orders, help identify suspected or wanted criminals from the Gallery pages or learn about community groups, events or meetings in your area.

Twyford Police Station is open Wednesday 2pm - 6pm and Saturday 9am-1pm and is manned by volunteers. They are there to answer any queries and pass messages to the rest of the team. To view information on your neighbourhood team you can visit the force website at: www.thamesvalley.police.uk.

To learn more please go to www.thamesvalleyalert.co.uk

Twyford Neighbourhood Policing Update for June 2017
From Superintendent Robert France, Bracknell & Wokingham LPA Commander

This quarter has seen neighbourhood teams across the Local Police Area continue to develop their ability to gain a shared understanding with our communities of how we can address together the highest priority issues within our neighbourhoods. That shared understanding is really important: we hold lots of information about when, where and how crime is being committed but that needs to be informed by the very strong local knowledge of communities about what that feels like, how you would like to see us prioritise those issues and perhaps most importantly what you know that we don’t.

In Earley the team have identified a significant rise in theft from motor vehicles that was impacting on the local community. These can be difficult offences to investigate; usually committed quickly with no witnesses and little prospect of forensic evidence. The team took a problem solving approach – working with the community to spread effective crime reduction messages whilst at the same time focussing resources on deterring those offences through active patrol and piecing together a crime serious investigation. As a result, there are a number of cases currently within the criminal justice system for driving offences as well as substantive theft/handling stolen goods and a number of investigations are ongoing.

In Wokingham Town a rise in graffiti, first identified by local residents and the town council, has resulted in a shared plan not only to identify and remove graffiti but to work with local children and schools to tackle the problem at root cause. Much of that work is being done not by local officers but by key local partners. It’s a great example of communities coming together to address a problem together.

In Bracknell Town we are working hard to prepare for the exciting opening of the new town centre, again working to ensure a joined up approach with businesses and other local stakeholders reduces the risk of crime. An ounce of prevention, they say, is worth a pound of cure. We have at the same time recognised the impact of some ongoing anti-social behaviour in the town centre and are both tackling the symptoms by increasing police patrols to identify and address the behaviour when it happens and putting in place a long term problem solving plan to address the causes.

These are just three examples of our commitment to identify those issues having the most impact and working with communities to identify shared, long term solutions which will make a real difference. Neighbourhood teams are committed to developing their capacity and ability to work in this way, and both I and they are hugely grateful to our partners in both the public and private sector for the support and energy they bring to the table.

Contact Us

If you want any advice or would like to contact the neighbourhood team you can call us on the police non emergency number 101. If your call is an emergency then dial 999.

You can also contact us via email: Twyfordnhpt@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk – please note this email address cannot be used to contact Thames Valley Police to report crimes or for any urgent matters.

If you have information about crime or anti social behaviour in your area but you do not want to speak to the police, please call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

Access further information on the Twyford Neighbourhood part of the Thames Valley Police website.

Community Speed Watch

We are currently looking at getting a team of The Community SpeedWatch (CSW) Scheme, which has been developed by the police and local highways, to work with local communities to help reduce speeding through communities. In simple terms, CSW works by having neighbourhood volunteers manning a roadside speed device from which the volunteers can record a vehicle’s speed. The registration details of those vehicles recorded as speeding are noted. A ‘police volunteer’ will attend a local police station and obtain owner details from the Police National Computer. Details are then entered onto the TVP standalone SpeedWatch database – where it will initially automatically produce a warning letter, with repeat offenders being identified to Roads Policing for targeting.

To learn more please go to www.communityspeedwatch.co.uk