We can help tenants worried about drug dealing and nightmare neighbours, says police chief

A police chief has offered reassurance after tenant representatives said that some of their neighbours were too afraid to report anti-social behaviour.

The claims, involving problems such as drug-dealing, threats and nightmare neighbours, were made at recent meetings of Brighton and Hove City Council’s area housing panels.

Now, Temporary Chief Inspector Andy Saville, from Brighton and Hove’s Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “Members of the public reporting crimes and concerns is absolutely crucial in helping us tackle the issues that affect communities.

“And it is disappointing to hear some incidents around Whitehawk and Hollingdean are going unreported.

“The public are our eyes and ears. If incidents and concerns are flagged to us we are able to build up a more accurate community profile and focus our resources accordingly.

“As a Neighbourhood Policing Team, we do a huge amount of work with our partners across the city to highlight problem areas and put the correct measures in place to address the root causes, bring perpetrators to justice and make Brighton and Hove even safer for all.

“That could be as simple as additional high-visibility police patrols or looking at solutions around public health, support for substance misusers or rough sleepers, street cleaning, extra street lighting, CCTV cameras and all sorts of other measures aimed at the complex issues that impact our communities.

“Sussex Police has recently launched the StreetSafe online toolkit, where people can report specific areas where they feel uneasy or unsafe – right down to street level.

“This information allows us to identify hotspots, which inform decisions and the focus of our partnership action to tackle issues and make the necessary improvements.

“Reports can be made directly to a patrolling officer on the street, online via the Sussex Police website, over the phone via 101 or, in an emergency, by calling 999.”

At one of the housing panel meetings, council housing manager Janet Dowdell urged people to report problems to the housing team or police so that they could understand what was going on and where.

She said: “We have a block security housing officer working on a project for the whole of the city.

“If residents are reporting intruders or drug-taking in blocks, we work in a multi-agency way with police and other outreach services to address it.

“If it’s not reported to us, we remain unaware of the problems in the blocks. It’s important to report it to the police or housing customer services.

“It doesn’t mean they’ll always get attendance (but) every report is plotted as an issue. The more reports we get, the more understanding we have about what’s going on in the area.”