Earlier this month, I went on a ‘ride out’ with two local officers from Essex Police's Castle Point District as they went out on their late night community policing patrol around Castle Point.
I met the officers late on Saturday night at Canvey Island Police Station on Long Road. Our first stop was Roscommon Way on Canvey where we came across cars and crowds of spectators obviously gathering for an illegal boy racer meet. The ‘blues and twos’ went on immediately and as soon as they saw the flashing lights the majority of the racers dispersed almost immediately. They knew their plans for an evening of drag racing and causing misery to local residents with the noise from their exhausts had been rumbled and they didn’t fancy getting instant fines or having their cars crushed!
The Public Space Protection Order on Roscommon Way is a useful tool for the police to combat boy racing on Roscommon Way. I successfully lobbied Castle Point Borough Council to set it up three years ago and it was good to see how effective it is in action.
Once the potential boy racers had got the message and left the island, we then went out on patrol around the Borough. At Waterside Farm, we came across a gentleman who was transporting a selection of what must have been 10 foot by 8 foot metal grate fence panels with the aid of a mobility scooter along the footpath of Somnes Avenue. We stopped and spoke to him and needless to say he didn’t make it to where he was going with those fence panels that night!
We patrolled on foot around the area and came across a large quantity of prescription medication that proposed a risk to the public next to litter bin. The officers gathered it up and took it away to be disposed of.
We then went back out on patrol around the rest of the Borough, stopping off in a few areas where the police had intelligence that car thieves sometimes left vehicles they had used electronic keys to steal to see if they had trackers on board and were retrieved. It was the night after the amazing aurora we saw in the night sky and lots of people had gathered at Hadleigh Castle to hopefully see it again. We went by to check everyone was OK and apart from some congestion along Castle Lane there were no problems.
It was very reassuring to see how the Community Policing Team are patrolling the Borough while the majority of residents were sleeping. Both the officers I joined for the ‘ride out’ were very professional and experienced and clearly very committed to doing a great job for the Borough. It was a fantastic experience.
