Good afternoon Resident,

I hope you have had a lovely weekend. Welcome to week 14 of the A-Z of Crime Prevention newsletter and already we have been welcomed into April with some beautiful, sunny weather. Today marks the first day of the Easter holidays so we are anticipating more people, both young and old, spending more time in the City Centre and in our green spaces over the next few weeks so please look out for officers from the Neighbourhood Policing Team who will be carrying out hotspot patrols across the district, and our Intervention Officers who will be responding to 999/101 calls just as usual. 

For this week’s theme, I thought it would be valuable to discuss the Night-time Economy and how crime and incidents can look in the world of Policing. Unfortunately, there is a correlation between alcohol consumption and a rise in violent crime, unwanted sexual behaviour, and public order offending.  It is a force and national priority to reduce serious and sexual violence within the night-time economy, as well as to reduce vulnerability and opportunity to commit crime. This is a dense topic with many avenues to go down so if you have any questions about any initiatives or issues discussed, please hit “Reply” at the bottom of this message and we would be glad to chat to you. 

Spiking

It is a crime to maliciously administer any poison or noxious substance, such as to endanger life, cause grievous bodily harm, intentionally injure another person, or to sexually assault a victim. Putting alcohol into someone’s drink without their knowledge or permission constitutes this offence and is more commonly referred to as ‘spiking’. It’s sensible not to accept a drink from a stranger or leave your drink unattended, however sometimes people get spiked by people they know and trust too. It can be difficult to know if someone has spiked you. The most important thing to do is if you feel seriously unwell, call 999 to request an ambulance as getting that emergency medical assistance is vital. 

If you suspect that you have been spiked, or you have witnessed someone else being spiked, please report this to Police as soon as possible. You can tell us about a spiking incident even if you don’t want to go through with forensic testing and an investigation, as it is helpful for us to know if an incident has happened so we can better protect the public and prevent a similar incident from happening again. 

Project Vigilant

Hertfordshire Constabulary has adopted the proactive national safety initiative which aims to identify and intercept those who may be displaying predatory behaviour during the night-time economy to help prevent sexual offences from happening. The Operation involves specially trained plain-clothes and uniformed police officers patrolling public areas outside nightclubs, bars and pubs. This Operation has been executed in St Albans, Watford, Hertford, Stevenage, and North Hertfordshire. Predatory and harassing behaviour will not be tolerated in Hertfordshire. 

Find out more about Project Vigilant on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDIFQeMo_oP/

That’s all for today, thank you for reading! As mentioned, if you have any questions about any of the topics discussed or you want to know more about what your local officers are doing, please hit the “Reply” button at the bottom of the page. Likewise, you can tell us how useful this message was to you by hitting the “Rate” button (thumbs up/down) at the bottom of this message. 

Kind regards, 

Fiona