John Baker is a Senior Officer in the council's Communications team. He recently went out with the council's enforcement officers and members of the police force, to witness the work they do in the city centre.
If you were on Long Causeway at about 1.30pm one Wednesday recently, you may have seen a small barrier being wrapped around several benches, shielding a distressed woman from the public.
As part of (Anti-Social Behaviour) ASB week, I happened to be nearby at the time, alongside Cabinet member for Housing and Communities Cllr Alison Jones; Sgt Steve Rose, of the city centre neighbourhood team; and Dan Talbott, City Centre Supervisor (People and Communities) from the Safer Peterborough Prevention and Enforcement teams.
These teams, alongside the city centre street ambassadors of Peterborough Positive and BID officer PC Jay Cullimore, are responsible for keeping the city safe using a wide variety of measures. These officers also all work with the council’s licensing and housing teams, among many others.
What we saw on that Wednesday was a typical, if sad incident. The protective barrier was around a young woman with learning difficulties – probably in her early twenties, and certainly in distress – who could not tell officers what was wrong, and more tellingly how to help her.
Seemingly lost, a phone number in her necklace was called, but not immediately answered. As she became more flustered, she lowered herself to the floor and suffered a seizure. By now, three officers were trying to help her, and also security guards from Queensgate.
Assistance soon arrived and she was helped by medical staff in an ambulance, but these are the issues that the various teams in the city deal with, on a daily and hourly basis, hundreds of times. They take time, and care, and multiple people – but they are very necessary.
And because they are not typically deemed as “policing” issues, they are largely unseen by the public in comparison to the more obvious shoplifting and criminal acts.
The following day we saw no crime in walked a loop from the city centre to Bourges Boulevard to Cowgate and back again and didn’t have to stop to intervene with any incidents, so I had the chance to ask Sgt Rose about questions that might be we see posted on social media, such as the perception of the city centre getting worse.
Sgt Rose said: “This city centre is no different to any other in terms of there being the same issues and problems, but there is more a lot going on here to tackle them than other places. Because of the successes we make a conscious effort to publicise our work, such as prosecutions, arrests, and criminal behaviour orders being publicised, our work and the related crime is highlighted, therefore people are hearing more about it and so naturally people think it’s getting worse. We are all working together to make it a nicer place.
“The policing team is here as much as they can be. There are things that will sometimes take us away from the city centre that may be higher threat or risk, but when we are here there are significant reductions in crime.
“One of the issues is that there are more likely to be negative reviews from people when they experience something bad in the city, but they don’t tend to leave anything positive when they have a good day.”
He added: “The city centre is developing in a positive way, with more places for families to have meals and experiences, such as the recent opening of the Odeon cinema. for example.
“The design of the city centre until recently was still as it was when Queensgate first opened. But with the regeneration of the train station the hope is that incidents such as crime in the underpasses will be ‘designed out’, and areas will be less dark and more welcoming.”
Cllr Jones said: “As a true Peterborian the whole city centre has changed over time and it always changes – so what we have to do as a council and with our partners is react to that.
“We want to work with it and improve it – we want people to come into the city centre, it’s a great area.”
The week before I had been out with Peterborough City Council’s enforcement officers in our city. In a typical day, they will do everything from the ‘customer service’ of helping visitors with directions and providing information, to monitoring anti-social behaviour.
That includes daytime cycling on Bridge Street – thankfully these incidents are limited, but still annoying and dangerous when at speed.
In the space of an overly busy hour one Thursday we see four or five cyclists – one of whom responds with a foul-mouthed rant when told to get off the saddle; a man who has collapsed through an addiction problem; and several others in a well-known car park clearly taking drugs.
While an hour of this kind is rare, there is a group of 50 or so ‘regular’ drink or drug users in the city; the officers are in regular contact with many of the ‘day’ drinkers, who unfortunately start on the cheap high-strength cider in the morning.
One officer, Peter, says: “We know our hotspots, which are fairly obvious. There are certain areas where people like to go and it’s about disrupting their routine, which is quite predictable.
“It’s about being there at the right time – some shops and cafes have hotlines that we use, and they let us know if they need any assistance."
He added: “We picked up a prolific shoplifter this morning to remind him that the city cameras were on him, and to behave or else. Let’s hope he is sensible. Prevention is as much of our job as is enforcement.
"In the last few months we have made ourselves a lot more noticeable to help stores with shoplifting and trying to recover goods.”
For more information on the council’s city centre teams and their work click here: https://www.peterborough.gov.uk/residents/saferpeterborough