Extra police patrols in Hemel and other town centres and crime hotspots hailed “tremendous success”
A special Hertfordshire Constabluary police operation centred on additional patrols in town centres like Hemel and crime hotspot areas has been hailed as a “tremendous success” by the boss of the force.
Operation Hotspot was established in 2024 with funding secured by the PCC's office.
Chief Constable Andy Prophet sat down with the force’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), Jonathan Ash Edwards, on Thursday, May 14, as they held their monthly accountability and performance meeting.
Among the items on the agenda was the performance of Operation Hotspot over the past financial year.
Operation Hotspot was launched in May 2024, with funding secured by the PCC’s office, focusing on town centres and areas experiencing higher levels of anti-social behaviour.
Figures released last week show that since the scheme’s launch, hotspot officers have completed 50,846 patrol hours across the county, engaging with tens of thousands of members of the public.
In the last year alone, the operation has led to 370 arrests, 654 stop searches, 1,646 anti-social behaviour powers used, and 57 knives seized.
The chief constable described the operation’s performance over the past year as “brilliant”, adding: “It’s gone from strength to strength… In year two, there were nearly 33,000 hours of additional patrols in hotspots, so that is an increase of 25%
“We were really, really active where our information and community intelligence says bad things are happening.
“As a result of our activity in the second year, on top of the brilliant start in year one, we saw violent crime fall by another 48 offences, that’s a 3% fall.
“Personal robbery in those hotspots fell by nearly 50 offences, a reduction of 50%, and overall crime and ASB fell by 2.5% again from a nearly 14% reduction in year one.
“So, year two has been even more productive, and we’ve continued to see a number of the crime types we’re targeting fall as a result of the activity.
“Broadly speaking, commissioner, I’d say it’s been a tremendous success.”
The PCC added that the public has been “very supportive” of the operation and its “additional visibility” of policing in action.