Chief Inspector Rawlingson talks about issues and work in Uttlesford during July.

I’m delighted to say that this week marks the year anniversary of Saffron Walden’s Town Centre Team consisting of Sergeant Simon Miah, PCs Joe Whitehead and Sonia Green and PCSO Tammy Blest.

It’s been a varied 12 months with a lot of it dominated by Covid-19, however, there have been some fantastic examples of good work and collaboration.

The team has operations in place to help keep Saffron Walden safe during the night-time economy with patrols on Friday and Saturday nights and they have a close working relationship with licensed premises.

They are helping to identify children at risk of crime and anti-social behaviour through close working with schools and they have been deploying knife arches, giving educational inputs and carrying out knife test purchasing operations to tackle knife crime under Operation Sceptre.

The team has made 18 arrests, carried out one warrant and have completed over 1,015 hours on foot patrol.

I know Simon, Joe and Sonia haven’t been afraid to have some fun in the role.

Just recently Simon was photographed engaging with an elderly woman in Saffron Walden while doing tai chi and last week he played basketball with a woman in Thaxted.

He lost and later found out that Eve was the captain of the Eastern Blue Stars women’s basketball wheelchair team.

It’s been emotional to see the life blood of our towns open - their cafes and shops again with so many locally owned establishments. How wonderful to see tables laid out again instead of stacked in a corner.

We have had a busy few months by proactively policing the district and if you’re on the district’s Facebook page (Essex Police – Uttlesford), you would have seen that our officers and PCSOs have been everywhere.

PC Souel Sampson and PCSO Alexander Horne have carried out speed checks in Thaxted, Quendon and Great Chesterford in response to concerns raised by residents.

PCSO Horne has been trying to get out to all our villages and towns, getting thank yous in Great Dunmow and greeting locals in Manuden and Little Canfield.

PC Sampson recently joined the team and he has been getting out and about with some of our more experienced colleagues such as PCSO Nikki Morris.

PCSO Morris has also been out and about in Elsenham and was in the area during the village’s scarecrow festival.

She also recently visited Henham and had the chance to have a catch up with a headteacher.

We have some great team partnerships in Uttlesford’s policing teams, with police constables and PCSOs on patrol together to help keep you safe.

I must stress, it’s not all been about patrols. We have proactively caught suspected criminals too.

Last week three of our officers responded to reports of a man breaking into the Three Colts site Stansted.

We found that a window had been broken and a messy search had been carried out in a shed.

Following some good work, PCs Wilkinson, Hutchings and Gliddon arrested a man from Harlow and he remains under investigation.

Two of these officers made a proactive-stop search last week in Dunmow, resulting in a 24-year-old man being arrested on suspicion of possession of cannabis, drug driving and failing to stop and a 48-year-old man on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of cannabis.

They both remain under investigation.

I look forward to seeing how the next year pans out and I wanted to end by saying a big thank you to you all.

We’ve just entered a new period in our lives by wearing face masks in shops and I know you’ve all been very supportive of this new change.

Please continue to support shops by visiting them and helping them to flourish.

Please also to support them by respecting the new rules and by wearing a face mask as you browse inside.

I look forward to seeing you out and about – face mask on or off!