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Firstly, I do hope you were able to enjoy a relaxing festive season, and wish you all a happy and healthy 2025.
I’d like to update you on a period of intensified enforcement and activity by officers in Ipswich to target serious crime and violence late last year. Utilising resources from across the county and working with partner agencies between September and November, there was an increased focus on county lines and related youth gang violence.
This period saw a total of 101 arrests made with weapons including a sword and an axe seized, and includes 33 occasions where ‘drug offence’, was listed as the most serious. Nine people were convicted while a further 12 people were charged and remanded in custody. A total of 25 warrants were executed, with 156 home invasion checks carried out. Also known as ‘cuckooing’, this is a practice where people take over a person's home and use the property to facilitate exploitation and/or criminal activity.
Weapons seized include knives, a samurai-style sword, an axe, a stun gun, a knuckle duster and a crossbow. Excellent results were seen with dangerous individuals identified - it is important we have these intensified periods and this shows the success that sustained pressure placed on those involved in these sorts of crimes can have, and the effectiveness of a joint approach with key partners. I hope this pro-active enforcement sends out a clear message that criminals are not welcome anywhere Suffolk.
At the start of this month the Constabulary launched a three-month trial using Enhanced Video Response (EVR) across its Response Investigation Team. This new system provides victims with the option of speaking with a police officer remotely and promptly via a video link to obtain immediate details of the incident and initial evidence. The trial was launched with the aim of expanding video appointment capability outside that which is already offered by the Domestic Abuse Video Response Team.
The process follows a member of the public calling into the Contact and Control Room regarding an incident. Response officers will conduct a suitability review to determine appropriateness of using EVR. A dedicated team consisting of a sergeant and six PCs monitor the queue and then call the victims to set up a video call. It's important to make clear victims will still be able to choose to see an officer in person if they wish to for the first statement, initial evidence gathering and future enquiries as the case progresses where appropriate. They will not be given an EVR appointment without first consenting. This pilot is an exciting step in technological progression, providing greater channel choice to victims when reporting a crime in Suffolk. Suffolk Constabulary is committed to innovation and wanting to continuously improve how we meet the needs and expectations of our communities. This is another positive step on that journey.
Finally, I’d like to update you on some of the work of the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit, more commonly known as ERSOU. My staff have continued to work closely with specialist teams in ERSOU, which helps us tackle the threat of terrorism and organised crime. ERSOU’s Regional Organised Crime Unit operates alongside our local units to provide extra support, take on investigations, and help us map spikes in organised criminality to ensure our resources are best being used to target those causing the most harm.
The team uses all manner of specialist tactics to help identify and apprehend offenders behind some of the most damaging criminality, whether that’s drug dealers importing heroin and cocaine, cyber criminals looking to target local businesses, or fraudsters trying to take peoples’ hard-earned money.
Some you of may have seen Crimewatch Live recently, which saw ERSOU and Suffolk officers team up with an inspirational 83-year-old victim of fraud who was committed to capturing the offenders who targeted her. The episode showed how the victim had been convinced by fraudsters impersonating police that her bank account had been compromised and that she should withdraw her money and buy blocks of gold bullion for them to collect, something we refer to as ‘courier fraud’.
However, after speaking with her family members and realising it was all a ruse, she bravely contacted genuine officers to report the crime and helped set up a meeting with the unknowing fraudsters for them to collect the gold. Detectives were then waiting at the address to apprehend the culprits, who now face a significant spell behind bars. ERSOU’s financial investigators are also key to ensuring crime doesn’t pay, and they work diligently in pursuing convicted criminals to strip them of money made through illicit means. Since October, they’ve stripped Suffolk-based criminals of nearly £300,000 in cash and assets relating to drug supply, with one result just before Christmas seeing a cocaine dealer from Ipswich ordered to repay an initial £14,000 through the sale of expensive clothes, a motorbike, and cash seized by out officers.
Another example of ERSOU’s work was the jailing of a man after he’d attended a combat re-enactment in Stonham Aspal and threatened participants with a knife, pretending he was a member of a banned terrorist group. After our officers promptly responded to the initial incident and arrested the man, they spotted that he had sown Wagner Group badges to his camouflage jacket, a serious offence given support for the organisation has been banned in the UK. The investigation was passed to ERSOU’s Counter Terrorism Policing unit, with enquires showing he had gone to significant lengths to convince others he was a member of the group. He was subsequently jailed for two-and-a-half years.
As readers will no doubt appreciate, there’s much more work that ERSOU is doing that we can’t talk about for security reasons, but these are just a few of examples of how closely we work with them to keep Suffolk safe.