Anti-social use of vehicles (predominantly unregistered off-road bikes) is a major concern for the community. Frequently uninsured and unroadworthy, the illegal use of such vehicles creates a risk of harm to the public and to the rider.

Supported by Housing Agencies and Landlords, Community Protection Warning Notices are in the process of being issued to addresses where unregistered off-road motorbikes are known to be operated from. Intelligence gathering is being sought from the community around addresses where bikes are being used from.

This is causing financial loss to local businesses and distress to persons working within those stores, as well as to other shoppers who may witness the incidents.

A dedicated Retail Crime SPOC PCSO 8725 Rutherford has been allocated within the neighbourhood policing team. OP DRIVE was completed in July with a Focus on Retail Crime both within and outside of the Town Centre. Shops were visited and engaged with and more signed up to our Shopwatch Scheme. The benefit of this are already being seen in the quick identification of offenders. In July one male was arrested and remanded for a number of shopliftings from Tesco, Blackhill. A second male was interviewed for numerous shopliftings in Blackhill and Leadgate and and file is being compiled for court. Further investigations are ongoing in relation to thefts from Blackhill, with suspects having been identified through the use of the Shopwatch Scheme.

In our area this has included the anti-social use of vehicles such as off-road bikes, incidents between residents living in close proximity to each other. The area also has a number of buildings that are currently empty, attracting young people as a place to congregate and explore.

Our officers are pro-active in the tackling of anti-social behavior within the community. We work closely with housing providers and the anti-social behavior team in Durham County Council.
In the past year we obtained a partial closure order on an address in Blackhill where there were numerous reports from residents of anti-social behavior causing distress to the community and liaised with the housing provider, the person in question has now been evicted from that property.
In the last 3 months we have issued a number of referrals to the anti-social behavior team in relation to under-18s causing anti-social behavior and investigated a number of reports of anti-social behavior between residences in close proximity to each other.
We have also completed inputs with a number of local schools around the dangers of going into disused buildings