Man tried to ram police car on Doncaster street to escape capture: Police column

It’s early days, but the first few days of my time as the new neighbourhoods highlighted a possible issues on the roads – and we might be looking at more enforcement action over speeding on one or two of the area’s busiest roads.

I’m born and bred in Doncaster, and have been a police officer since 1996, most of my service has been spent in uniformed roles in both response and neighbourhoods functions.

I spent time as the sergeant on the Doncaster East neighbourhood team around 10 years ago, but I have most recently been one of the Inspectors in charge of response team, based at the College Road police station in Doncaster town centre.

Among the first incidents to happen after I arrived as the new neighbourhood Inspector here in the East was a vehicle ramming one of our police patrol cars on the evening of Friday September 13. The car was trying to make off after it had been stopped after we become suspicious about the vehicle. The driver was charged and remanded. Luckily no one was injured.

There was more drama three days later, when a van believed to have been stolen from Chesterfield and driven by a wanted man ended up being pursued to Ramskir Lane, Stainforth, at around 9.30am on Monday September 16. The driver was arrested after he tried to leave the scene.

Over the last month, the team have been doing a lot of work around the local roads, looking at people’s concerns over speeding on their streets.

A concern in the last month has been the number of vehicles exceeding the speed limit on High Street and Station Road in Hatfield.

Throughout August, we carried out a number of speeding operations across the East. Among these was one that we ran on High Street, which logged the speed of 225 vehicles.

The speed limit there is 30mph, but of those 225, 58 were travelling between 30 and 35, 12 were doing 35-40, and five were driving at over 40.

That highlighted that one in three were driving into Hatfield over the speed limit, this is irresponsible, I need people to be aware of this and to reinforce the message for all drivers to watch their speed. Everyone should observe the speed limit and we will continue to monitor the situation. Where we identify roads of concern we will deal with it through the South Yorkshire Police Road Safety Camera Partnership and in conjunction with our internal and external partners.

We also ran a number of other speeding operations during the month, one on Station Road, Hatfield, where 105 out of 200 were travelling over 30mph; Station Road, Stainforth (48 out of 215 over the speed limit); Marshland Road, Moorends (five of 87) ; Grange Road, Burghwallis (none); Station Road, Norton (none), and Doncaster Road Stainforth (23 out of 167) and the team will continue these operations.

My team has also recovered nine vehicles that were either suspected stolen or driven with no insurance, since the start of August.

We have also been taking action over drugs over the last few weeks. One of the most recent actions saw is searching a house on Marshlands Road, Moorends on September 9. It was not only drugs that was found. We also arrested two people for possession of a bag of fake £20 notes. We are asking people to be aware there is a batch of fake £20 notes in circulation particularly in Thorne, Moorends, Dunscroft and Stainforth. Please check your bank notes and if you have any information regarding the distribution of these notes please report via normal routes - 101, online or Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.

Prior to that, a warrant was carried out at Willow Crescent, Thorne over suspected misuse of drugs. Officers found 53g of suspected cocaine , as well as two police-style batons and knuckle dusters. Arrests were made and investigations are ongoing.

Last month, my predecessor reported a spike in residential burglaries in Edenthorpe, I can report that these have seen a noteworthy reduction though we must not be complacent and we will continue with our patrols in the area and in other wards throughout the East. Please help us, and ensure your house and car keys are kept safe and out of sight. For those that want any crime prevention advice, there is a range of advice on our website – www.southyorks.police.uk under the ‘find out’ icon. If anyone has any information as to who may be responsible for any crime, please contact us again via normal routes - 101, online or through Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.

And last week, as a force we ran operation Sceptre, in support of the national operation that aims to raise awareness of knife crime and the number of families affected by its devastating impacts, targeting knife crime and discouraging people from carrying knives. Our aims across the East throughout Operation Sceptre, and across the force in general, are three fold; to reduce the number of victims of knife enabled crime in our communities, to increase the rate of offenders brought to justice for knife enabled criminality and to influence the attitudes of young people, in particular young men, through education around the consequences of knife crime for their families and themselves. I would encourage the intelligent reporting of anyone who carries a knife, or illegally held weapons.

As the new Inspector, I am sure I will be in communications with a lot of people in the Doncaster East area over the coming weeks about what is important to them. I won’t be making any knee-jerk decisions, although in the coming months I’m sure there may be areas I will seek to address to make sure we have a safe neighbourhood and that confidence and satisfaction levels in the police increase across the area.

You can find out more about the police activity occurring in the East of Doncaster by signing up to SYP Alerts. Just register via our website (www.southyorks.police.uk) the site will give you further details about the Alert system or ask one of the team if you see them around. Alternatively, you could just follow us at Doncaster East NHP or find information on our website page.