Meet your Caldicot neighbourhood policing team

Our neighbourhood policing team have been working hard through 2022 to keep Caldicot a safe place.

Today, we're launching our fourth monthly blog for Gwent Police's east local policing area. 

This edition will focus on Caldicot. 

You will have seen new activities being launched to help make Caldicot safer. From the Safer Streets initiative, the ‘call out only’ campaign to end violence against women and girls and the heightened presence of the We Don’t Buy Crime (WDBC) team, there has been a lot going on. 

Our neighbourhood policing team in Caldicot have been listening to the concerns of our communities; trying to identify the things that matter or cause concern to you. One of the concerns the team have identified is anti-social behaviour (ASB), particularly during summer of last year in the town centre. 

From aggressive, noisy or abusive behaviour to neighbourhood disturbances, ASB takes many forms and we're committed to tackling it in all its forms. 

As a direct response to these concerns, our neighbourhood Inspector for Monmouthshire; Ioan Williams attended town council meetings, discussing the concerns with councillors, residents, and business owners in Caldicot.  

Together we set a plan in motion: 

• We increased the police presence in Caldicot, supported by specialist teams and colleagues from our special constabulary 
• We implemented dispersal orders across the town centre (dispersal orders give officers extra powers to direct groups to leave an area if they are involved in ASB) 
• We had multi-agency meetings, exploring the reasons for ASB in Caldicot and how to prevent it in the future. These meetings included personnel from the schools, local council, youth groups, housing services and social services. 

These actions saw a significant drop in ASB across Caldicot. 

We also held a 'day of action' where we completed six Warrants and arrested five men.  

The arrests included an 18-year-old man, 20-year-old man, 21-year-old man, 21-year-old man and a 18-year-old man, all from the Caldicot area. 

They have since been released under conditional bail. 

Moving into the winter months of last year, the number of reports of ASB in Caldicot remained very low. 

An incident of disorder in November saw a 16-year-old boy and 18-year-old man were arrested on suspicion of affray.  

Inspector Ioan Williams said: 

“I hope all the recent positive work of my teams will reassure our communities of our commitment to eliminate anti-social behaviour. 

“ASB will not be tolerated in our communities; I hope these swift arrests act as a reminder to those tempted to engage in such criminality.” 

Moving forward... 

Looking into 2023, we plan to keep the multi-agency meetings running alongside our increased presence in Caldicot. 

If you see us out and about, please come and speak to us.  

By raising your concerns and reporting any criminal activities or suspicious behaviour to us, we can prioritise your areas of concern. 

Finally, we would like to thank the community for all they do to help make Caldicot a safer place for all. 

To keep up to date with the work of our Caldicot neighbourhood policing team on Twitter here.