WELCOME to June’s ‘On the Beat’ – my first since taking over this column from Chief Inspector Jim Baker who has now left for a new force-wide Local Policing role.

Like Jim, I have spent most of my 24 years of police service in Wyre Forest and so have a good working knowledge of the area and its communities.

For the last five and-a-half years I have been District Inspector with responsibility for overseeing the delivery of Local Policing. An important component of this is ensuring PACT (Partners and Communities Together) works effectively and that priorities allocated to the police are actioned for the benefit of residents.

My role also involves liaising with partners at the district council and other agencies so we can adopt a co-ordinated approach to crime and other quality of life issues.

I am a great supporter of partnership working and currently I am vice-chairman of Wyre Forest Community Safety Partnership’s Tasking Group. Each month we sit down to look at types of crime, pinpoint where it is most prevalent and draw up an action plan to address the problem.

Much has been achieved through this approach and many of you may have noticed some of the resulting campaigns such as Safe As Houses which saw home security messages appear on everything from billboards to refuse vehicles.

Those messages are particularly relevant now as we enter summer and that insecure door or window left open for air proves too tempting for the opportunistic thief.

Providing information about crime and what we are doing about it is a central theme of West Mercia’s Policing Pledge. This column is an important tool to help achieve that and I look forward to updating you on our efforts to ensure Wyre Forest remains a safe place to live.

INSPECTOR PAUL CROWLEY, Kidderminster Police