Horsham

From here you can find station opening times and contact details for your local neighbourhood policing team, see the latest priorities and events in your area and view the local crime levels.

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On April 17 your District Commander took part in a day of live webchats as part of our commitment to become more open and transparent - you can watch the videos and read the conversations about policing in your area on our Sussex Policing Live page.

District Commander's message: Chief Inspector Sharon Parker

I have now been at Horsham three months and I want to thank everyone for their warm welcome. I thoroughly enjoyed having the opportunity to talk with you at the policing live event and answering your questions. Horsham is a thriving place and there is excellent work going on within the team and the wider partnership to deal with issues that are affecting you.

I am very happy to confirm the arrival of Inspector Clare Mcknight as the new Neighbourhood Policing Inspector for Horsham. Clare comes with a wealth of experience and joins us having completed a project on Special Constables. She replaces Acting Inspector Ian Cooke who was in post from November. I want to thank him for his hard work and support.

I would like to highlight some of the successes for last year:-

There was a series of arsons in Steyning in February 2012. In partnership with our colleagues at West Sussex fire and rescue and Horsham District Council a series of activity was undertaken to reassure the community. Extra patrols were put in place to reassure the community and catch the perpetrators. A number of suspects were arrested to assist with the investigation. A suspect remains on bail while enquiries continue.

Southwater has seen crime continue to fall through the and was positively received at the recent Parish Council meeting. I was proud to present awards to the Southwater volunteers at their team meeting for long service. Their commitment to providing an outlet at Southwater for the community to attend is commendable.

In the town centre PCSO Whittaker has been recognised for her assistance in the gaining support for the SAFE place scheme. This scheme premises through a logo as a safe place for people with learning difficulties The scheme now has over 40 members and we hope will continue to grow.

This year crime did increase slightly in the district. This was from a very low base and Horsham remains the safest place to live in West Sussex and work with the wider Community safety partnership continues to ensure this.

Our focus this year will be working with our partners to reduce violent crime and what is called acquisitive crime. There has been a rise in this area of crime and we speculate it is due to the economic climate. Our main focus in this area will be burglary of people's homes, outbuildings, (sheds, garages,) and personal thefts. Recent research for Horsham for all burglaries of people's homes in recent 12 months showed that 32% had an insecurity. Many of these types of crimes can be opportunist and by ensuring you take simple measures such as locking your doors and windows on leaving the property, ensuring your downstairs windows are closed and doors locked with keys removed when going to sleep at night does make a difference. Further crime prevention advice can be found here http://www.sussex.police.uk/advice-and-support/crime-prevention

As we move into this year there will be some challenges we face with the forthcoming Olympics and this will place demands upon the police service nationally and locally however through our planning, the policing service that you receive will remain the same.

Chief Inspector Sharon Parker

District Commander