New inspector’s passion is serving the community
HOW POLICE WILL TACKLE CRIME IN SIX NOTTINGHAM NEIGHBOURHOODS
FROM catching drug dealers that plague The Meadows and Wilford to clamping down on dangerous illegal bikes in Clifton.
The new neighbourhood police inspector for City South, Karl Thomas, is ready to get his teeth into the problems blighting the areas he now covers.
Inspector Thomas has been a police officer for nearly 19 years, with his most recent role catching robbers as a detective sergeant for the police’s dedicated robbery team.
Now he takes over from neighbourhood inspector James Walker to cover Clifton, Mapperley, The Meadows, Sneinton and St Ann’s.
He said: “I grew up in the inner city part of Nottingham and spent the first part of my life embarrassed about the location of my upbringing and my lacklustre approach to education. I left school with minimal qualifications.
“However, I have used the opportunities available in the police to challenge myself and develop my career, achieving things that I may not have thought possible when I was young. My passion is the community.
“I want to inspire young people to join the police. Neighbourhood policing brings everything together. It is at the centre, it is the engine.
“Without the community you have nothing and you need to listen to them.”
This is what Inspector Thomas has made his priorities for each area he now covers:
Clifton
“At the moment there is an issue with off road bikes and e-scooters and we are doing targeted patrols.
“Operation Scribble has trained officers on motorbikes targeting offenders there.
“There was an incident last October where a member of the public was injured quite seriously and the offender was injured as well. That is something we are hot on.
“We are planning to keep these patrols up and take the bikes off them. It is a danger for pedestrians.”
The Meadows
“Operation Autograph is around drugs. We caught someone with 30 wraps of heroin and cocaine the other day and we are not taking our foot off the gas.
“The Meadows is emerging and aspiring with lots of investment in the area with housing and I am keen for that to flourish.
“It is not far from the city and people from other areas come in to buy their drugs. It is the people from outside that are buying the drugs not people from The Meadows.”
Sneinton
“There are general problems around anti-social behaviour - longstanding issues which I want to resolve with partners through displacement, mediation or rehousing.
“The knife crime team are in there at the minute and will be there for the next couple of weeks and we want to stamp that out.
“The design of the housing has not helped matters. It is a highly populated area and you are going to get flare-ups.”
Neighbourhood policing brings everything together. It is at the centre, it is the engine. Insp Karl Thomas (right)
Wilford
“Undercover and uniformed officers will be targeting drug dealers around the toll bridge. This comes after hundreds of needles were found.
St Ann’s
“St Ann’s is doing really well but we still have work to do. One issue for me is littering, and fly tipping and that is something we need to tackle.” Mapperley
Shoplifting is the main problem affecting Mapperley.
“We can’t neglect shopkeepers,” he added. “It has an impact on businesses and the economy and especially in these difficult times when businesses are going under. I don’t want boarded-up shops in my area.”