Doncaster police chief reveals plans to increase neighbourhood policing visibility in 2025

"It's been an incredibly encouraging year for policing in Doncaster and it has been my privilege to take over as District Commander and oversee the brilliant officers and staff and the hard work they do all year round to keep you safe and fight crime.

"Policing comes in many forms and a lot of the work that drives some of our best results often goes on behind the scenes. It is important we acknowledge the efforts of everyone here at the district as they all play a part in reducing crime in Doncaster.

"I am pleased to say that over the course of 2024, we have been able to significantly improve our emergency and priority response times.

"In Doncaster, we face some geographical challenges due to having a high number of rural communities and train lines that intersect key travel routes so it is reassuring to hear that we are decreasing the time it takes to respond to serious incidents called in by members of the public.

"One key area of improvement we have seen in Doncaster in 2024 is a reduction in reports of most serious violence (MSV), which includes offences such as serious assaults, knife crime and violence against women and girls.

"We know MSV was regularly and rightly raised as a concern by people across the borough, particularly incidents of this nature in the city centre.

"Since 2023, there has been a downward trend in reports of MSV and this is thanks in part to early intervention by officers as well as the utilisation of Streetsafe, which has allowed us to gather crucial information from members of the public about areas where they feel unsafe.

"We've devised specific patrol plans for key hotspot areas where MSV has previously been more prevalent and having a visible presence of officers has helped to discourage this type of criminality which has no place on the streets of Doncaster.

"We've also seen a reduction in residential burglaries, which is testament to the ongoing work of Operation Castle and problem-solving approaches to tackling burglaries in defined geographical areas of Doncaster with a noticeably higher number of reports.

"Designated patrols and intelligence work has been carried out in these areas and has resulted in another yearly drop in the number of overall offences in Doncaster when you compare 2023 to 2024.

"We know how devastating neighbourhood crime can be and we are continuing to gather more intelligence and evidence on patterns of offending, including key locations, times and dates, and we will factor this into our future policing response.

"You may have seen recently that we are supporting City of Doncaster Council with its Safer Doncaster campaign.

"The authority is pledging £1m on new safety measures and we remain committed to supporting this cause and ensuring there is a visible police presence in the area.

"We regularly carry out high visibility patrols in the city centre and we plan to increase our visibility further as we know how reassuring it is to have our officers in that area.

"In January 2025, a dedicated operation will take place to show how we are proactively working with key partners such as the council, Trading Standards, Immigration and our modern slavery team, to make Doncaster city centre safer.

"Doncaster city centre is the hub of our city, and we want it to be the safest and most welcoming place it can possibly be, and I would encourage people to continue reporting crime and anti-social behaviour to us so we can achieve this aim, take appropriate action and bring offenders to justice.

"One challenge we are aware of is off-road bikes. We are aware of the impact they cause to local residents, particularly those in rural communities, and I want to reassure you that we are carrying out proactive operations with our Motorcycle and Rural Crime Team to tackle the issue.

"We are also devising a new problem-solving approach which will help us target more off-road bikers and as ever, we need the public to support us in this endeavour.

"The more information you tell us, particularly information about where and when these bikes are being ridden, physical descriptions of bikers, including the clothes and helmet they're wearing, the makes and models of the bikes and where they are being stored, the better equipped we will be to take action.

"Maintaining a visible policing presence in communities across the borough remains absolutely pivotal to us. We want to have officers on patrol in towns and villages across Doncaster and that is why in 2025 we will be investing more resources into neighbourhood policing.

"If you see our officers out and about in your communities, please approach them with any concerns you have as they are always there to help you and support you however they can.

"Our most important relationship continues to be with you - the residents of Doncaster. Your information, intelligence and concerns shape our policing response in this city and in 2025, I really want to strengthen this bond."