Youths suspected of throwing explosive railway detonators on Doncaster streets: police column

These are explosive items which are put on railway tracks, with the sound of the explosion warning people if there is a train coming.

They are explosive, so they are potentially dangerous and could cause an injury. People locally had heard the bangs these create.

These are believed to have been thrown on various streets in Stainforth. Some of those thought to have been throwing them have been identified, and have now been warned about their behaviour by officers in front of the parents.

It has been one of a number of actions we have taken in Stainforth recently. Colleagues also carried out some drugs warrants a few weeks ago at a caravan site near the town and recovered over 1kg of cannabis and £20,000 cash. One person was arrested. We also recovered a stolen vehicle in Stainforth, which was found on cloned plates – it had been stolen from Goole.

I also want to highlight the excellent work being done to target potential offenders across Doncaster through our increased use of stop and search powers. Between April 1 and June 30, officers stopped and searched 988 people. I hope this offers some reassurance to residents in all our communities.

Recent weeks also saw South Yorkshire Police taking part in the national firearm surrender, appealing to people to hand in their unwanted guns and ammunition in a bid to make the streets of South Yorkshire safer. During the two week period the amnesty was held, 63 firearms or imitation firearms were surrendered, including seven shotguns and three high powered rifles.

In Thorne and Moorends, we have received a number of reports about nuisance bikes over the past month. On Friday August 5, we and our partners ran a day of action there, alongside Doncaster Council officers conducting waste carrier license checks on commercial vehicles on Marshland Road, Moorends, Tudworth Roundabout, Thorne and Hatfield Lane, Thorne.

A number of vehicles were checked, one vehicle dealt with for having an expired MOT. Our off road motorcycle team worked throughout the area during the day conducting high visibility patrols.

Bizarrely, two warnings were issued on the day to men who we saw unloading two bikes from a van, near the sand quarry at Hatfield.

They had hired it for the day and travelled across from Humberside for a day out having read online that they could ride in our area.

They were wrong - it is private land where they cannot take their bikes, and we've made that clear to them.

We also a bike last week for no insurance on Friday August 9, which we now suspect is stolen. We are trying to identify the owner.

We also deployed one of our drones over Thorne Colliery a few weeks ago but no off road bikes were sighted.Readers in the Hatfield ward may recall I highlighted the drop in burglaries we recorded last month.This number remains relatively low with only three actual and one attempted residential burglary recorded this month.

Similarly, although we have seen a fall in break-ins in Edenthorpe and Kirk Sandall, we still recorded three attempted and 10 residential burglaries. We have continued with increased night patrols, but please keep on reporting any suspicious behaviour. If you have any information as to who may be responsible for these crimes, please contact us.In Askern, our off road bike team seized a bike after the rider made off from officers. He was stopped a short time later and arrested for burglary when the bike was identified as being stolen from Barnsley.

I previous wrote about the number of residential burglaries in which the offenders targeted specific properties to take ignition keys to the occupant's high value vehicle and steal it. Whilst we have seen further crimes occur, this number has fallen slightly and I urge people to consider improving the quality of door locks wherever necessary.

We have also carried out a a number of speeding operations over the past month.

Our officers have visited Churchfield Road, Campsall, Station Road at Norton, Grange Lane at Burghwallis. They ran operations at Station Road, Doncaster Road Stainforth, and one with pupils from Longtoft Primary School on Church Road.

We also conducted a speeding operation on High Street, Hatfield where 225 vehicles were monitored. We saw 58 doing 30 to 35mph 12 doing 35 to 40mph and five were doing over 40mph. In view of this, officers will be doing an operation in that area. If you are caught travelling at over 40mph, you will be going to court to receive at least three penalty points and a significant fine. Please watch your speed when entering the village.Police come and meet me at one of our community engagement meetings or contact me via our Facebook engagement event – details are on our website. You can also find out more about what Police activity is occurring in the East of Doncaster, by signing up to SYP Alerts, via our website, www.southyorks.police.uk.