Gun ammo, knives and crossbow seized in Doncaster police raid: Police column

As part of the ongoing Operation Drum Alpha in the town, officers carried a warrant at a house on Chaucer Road on October 18, and recovered shotgun cartridges, four large knives and a crossbow.

A few days earlier, on October 15, we had carried out three raids, on Schofield Street, Hirstgate and Belmont Street. All three had positive results, with cannabis and over £5,000 in cash seized. Four people were arrested and inquiries are ongoing.

Drum Alpha is still very much in full swing and we are still getting results from it.

One high profile incident in Mexborough that has been reported in the Free Press has been the killing of a swan on the canal tow path. We are looking at CCTV and have some really positive lines of enquiry.

It was recently revealed that we are planning to bring a dedicated community policing team into Edlington, based at Edlington Police Station, in the new year.

As a step towards this, we are due to appoint a PC and a PCSO specifically dedicated to the Royal estate in the village, working alongside the stronger families team at Doncaster Council.

The policeman will be an extra officer on top of the numbers we already have, and we are expecting that they will arrive with us in mid-November.

When we get the team based at the police station, we think it will be a game-changer, helping us build trust and confidence within the community, but the new officer will be based with the council until the police station opens next year.

In the north of our Doncaster West neighbourhood, we’ve recently seen fairly significant anti-social behaviour issues in Bentley Park, with evidence of drug taking and dealing. That has now become a priority for the officers in the team covering that area, and we ran an operation on October 20 with both high visibility officers and plain clothed officers, As a result of that, four teenagers were found with cannabis on them. They were all dealt with through street cautions.

We’ve also been visiting shops and cafés to explain the actions that we are taking and to encourage them to report to us any issues they witness.

We also want to encourage the reporting of issues to us in that area, on 101 or through Crimestoppers on 0800 555111, or through our website, www.southyorks.police.uk. The better informed we are, the better we can tackle issues.

The north of our area also recently saw a cannabis farm closed down after an incident at a house on Coppice Road, in Highfields. That is another are where we are looking to encourage people to report problems to us.

Finally, over the last few weeks we have started to have a problem with graffiti around the centre of Conisbrough, and in Denaby, that the council and ourselves are looking into. Consibrough town centre is covered by CCTV and we are actively reviewing this to identify those responsible.