Good Evening Heywood….. Its Sgt Matt 

I know it’s been a while, don’t worry I’ve still been around, there has been a reason for my lack of updates. Now the Spring is in full swing (except for the Hailstones and force 10 gales), i wanted to give you a little recap of some of our recent results. 

Over the last month or so my team have relentlessly been focusing on developing intelligence, dealing with complex/sensitive investigations, and more importantly getting in the face of criminals who are causing disruption in the town. I will summarise some of our activities.  

WARRANTS 

We have worked closely with our Organised Crime team and Rochdale Tutor Unit. This has enabled us to execute 7 warrants in the town for a range of suspected offences.  12 Persons have been arrested during these warrants for a range of offences. 

LICENSING VISITS 

Your officers have also been working closely with Specialist GMP teams and the council in recent weeks. We have conducted well over a dozen visits with shops and takeaways in Heywood. These visits lead to 

BURGLARIES

I know this has been a concern to you . Especially residents of Hopwood. The burglaries have eased of somewhat more than likely down to several arrests our police division has made. Please remain vigilant and keep doors or windows locked/shut, especially and if we ever get some warmer weather in the coming weeks. One thing I will say, is that cops especially hate burglary offences and multiple departments including your local team have been working hard to ID, disrupt and arrest these offenders. 

ANTI SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR 

There has been an increase of reports in ASB in the town centre which our team are working through. I am unsure if the parents of the little darlings are aware of their behaviour, but we are working our way through the CCTV footage in an attempt to ID the ring leaders. Visits and orders will be served on children and parents, so please take this as fair warning and double check your children are not involved. 

What I will say is that the MAJORITY of the interactions I have had in the town centre with young people have been decent and respectful. Most of them know me from the many school assemblies I have delivered, and they refer to me as the Sergeant who has a strange accent. I’ll take that level of banter!

On a more positive youth related topic, yesterday I attended the divisional policing awards. I met a young person called Jessica from Heywood. She was the winner of the Callum Riley award for her work in the community. She has been involved with training professionals and empowering her peers to raise awareness on some important issues. It nice for her to be formally recognised and it was well deserved! What I do know is that there are other young people in the town who follow her lead they really do make a difference!

OPERATION CARIBOU 

This is another project we have been working over the last few weeks and is our policing response to recent violence within the community. Alongside partners we have identified a group of offenders who are causing numerous issues. I wanted to do a big launch on this but my cops beat me to it. Within days of the operation being set up 5 of the main offenders were arrested for many offences including 

Three of the offenders were remanded in custody. 

You will see and hear a lot more about this OP, we will continue our pursuit of all of these offenders until they are no longer a threat to good people of Heywood. 

Take care 

Sgt Matt – Heywood Neighbourhood Sergeant