The Problem Solvers – 5th Febuary

Today I had been set up with the ‘problem solvers’ who work along side Inspector Nick. Their job role is to look at crime rates around Plymouth and look into where and why they either go up or down. How they can decrease these problems and to look at people who have just been realised from prison.

Luckily on the day I arrived it was there 2-week presentation with the force. The 2 problem solvers I was working with were both called Matt. Every 2 weeks they put together a presentation to present to the team to make them aware of the crime rates over the past 2 weeks.

Open arrival Inspector Nick met me at the front doors of Crownhill police station, he escorted me upstairs and introduced me to both Matts who I would be working with for a few hours. They both gave me a bit of an insight into what they do and how they come about this job. We then went onto the computer where they took me through the presentation they were going to present. The presentation was a breakdown of each crime that occurs within Plymouth. Within each of these crimes were a list of suspects, or people who have committed the crime and people who have recently been let out of prison who could be linked to the crime. Along with these crimes are solutions put in place to help stop this from happening or recurring. Learning from what both matts have done over the last 7 years working as problem solvers was a lot! The crime rates have gone down in most areas. They both emphasized the importance of having a structure like theirs in place, not to just highlight the problems but to also come up with ideas on how to help it. To my shock one of the biggest problems of crime in Plymouth is burglary. They highlighted to me that because this is primarily a student city, many students leave their houses unlocked and may often lose their keys. There are also massive problems with drugs in Plymouth, which I wasn’t surprised about. Drugs are everywhere nowadays and are often the cause for many other offences.

After we had been through the power point, touching it up etc they showed me how they access the crime rates and profiles of offenders. They have a huge system with all of this on and you can really specify down if you are looking specifically for something. One of my main interests in crime is sexual offences. I hope to work one day in sexual offending to help put more people behind bars and help victims feel more comfortable about coming out with their attacks.

Due to inspector Nick being held up in a meeting a few towns away I was unable to stay on for the meeting as I had work. I learnt a lot in this experience alone. It really opened up my eyes as to how much crime is happening every day and how the police actually deal with it. Also, how under staffed the police are and how grateful they are for us as volunteers to be able to give them a helping hand and some fresh ideas.

I left today wanting to look into crime rates around my area, Mutley Plain. After looking at the stats I was shocked to see how many burglaries happen, this is the 2nd hotspot for burglaries to happen in Plymouth. Comparing stats from last January (2018) to this years January (2019) there has been an increase of 24.5% of burglaries in Mutley Plain. I also had a look into sexual offences and again compared them t last January. The offences had gone up by 29.7% in the last year. Looking into these 2 crime stats alone has made me slightly more weary when I step out of my house in the near future.

 

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