north yorkshire police Archives - Page 44 of 147

Boys arrested after bottles thrown on Harrogate’s Parliament Street

Three boys have been arrested after items including fire extinguishers and glass bottles were hurled on to Harrogate’s Parliament Street today.

Police were called to reports of a burglary just before 2am. Parliament Street was closed and fully reopened at about 8am.

A North Yorkshire Police statement this morning said:

“CCTV in the area showed three young people throwing items from the top floor of the property into the street.

“Items included fire extinguishers, poles and boxes, one of which contained an amount of glass bottles, which smashed across the road.

“Specialist officers, including negotiators were called to the property bringing the incident to a safe conclusion around 6.30am.”

Yorkshire Ambulance Service and North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service were also called out and highways workers cleared debris before the road fully reopened at about 8am. Many windows on floors above the businesses on Parliament Street were broken this morning.

Two lanes of Parliament Street reopened until the remainder of the debris was removed.

The statement added:

“Three boys aged, 15, 16 and 17-years-old were arrested a short time later on suspicion of burglary and affray. They remain in police custody while the investigation continues.”

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service’s incident report said it was alerted at 2.43am.

“A crew from Harrogate responded to reports of a large number of youths inside an unsafe derelict building, throwing items from the roof.

“Fire crew stood by awaiting instruction form the police. Eventually incident was dealt with without fire service intervention.”

Stinger ends 100mph police chase in Knaresborough

A stinger punctured the tyres of a stolen car following a high-speed police chase that ended in Knaresborough today.

North Yorkshire Police said in a statement a high-performance Mercedes was stolen by a teenager in York just after 4am this morning.

It was stolen as part of a two-in-one burglary, which is when thieves break into a house and steal car keys. Keys to other vehicles, cash and jewellery were also taken.

The statement added:

“We tracked down a high-performance Mercedes that was stolen soon after 4am this morning.

“The driver failed to stop, reaching speeds of well over 100mph.

“We deployed a stinger to puncture its tyres near Knaresborough, with support from the NPAS police helicopter.”

The vehicle crashed on a roundabout, where an 18-year-old man from the Hull area was detained.

Police said he remains in custody.

CCTV appeal following supermarket theft in Boroughbridge

North Yorkshire Police has issued a CCTV image of a man it would like to speak to following a theft in Boroughbridge .

More than £170 worth of alcohol was stolen from the Morrisons supermarket on Wetherby Road at 4.45pm on March 12.

A police statement today said:

“Please contact us if you recognise the man pictured on CCTV, as he may have information that will assist our investigation.”

Anyone with information can email hazel.simms-williamson@northyorkshire.police.uk or call 101 and ask for PC1338 Simms-Williamson.

You can also contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 quoting reference 12240044229 when passing on information.

New figures show North Yorkshire ‘safest place in England’

North Yorkshire is the safest place in England, the county’s acting chief constable has said after new crime figures were released.

Elliot Foskett made the claim after three-year crime trend figures showed North Yorkshire has a lower crime rate than the England and Wales average in all but one of 15 categories. Bicycle theft was the exception.

The figures were revealed during an online public meeting yesterday (March 25) held by North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Zoe Metcalfe.

Temporary assistant chief constable Catherine Clarke said the figures, for the period from March 2021 and Feb 2024 showed all areas of crime were lower than in recent years with the exception of the period during covid.

Acting chief constable Foskett then said:

“This for me is the big one. This makes North Yorkshire the safest place in England.”

He said crime levels usually rose during summer but the trend last year from May to August was “significantly flat”, adding:

“What this means at the end of the day is fewer victims of crime. I don’t want to underplay this because I think it is such a huge thing for this county.

“Everytime I go out speaking to people in the street or in the community, sometimes they don’t realise just how safe it is here.”

A slide from the meeting showing crime levels.

Temporary ACC Clarke’s presentation also said the response rate for answering 999 calls was “vastly improved”.

The national target for police forces is to answer 90% of calls within 10 seconds. In February this year the figure in North Yorkshire was 89%, she said.

The response time for answering non-emergency 101 calls has also improved but remains below the target of 90% of calls being answered in 120 seconds.

North Yorkshire Police is currently achieving 75%, with the longest wait for a 101 call being one hour 23 minutes.

Yesterday’s public meeting was the first since the publication of a report by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services recognising significant improvements in North Yorkshire Police after a highly critical previous inspection in October 2022.

It was also the last police public meeting chaired by Ms Metcalfe before her role is taken over by whoever is elected Mayor of York and North Yorkshire on May 2.

Gaza war leads to hate crimes rising across North Yorkshire

There has been a 10% rise in reported hate crimes since last year with the ongoing Gaza war fuelling religious tensions, according to North Yorkshire Council.

Figures published in a council report reveal that in the last three months, there have been 283 hate crimes reported across North Yorkshire and York compared to 256 for the same period last year.

A hate crime is any incident where someone is assaulted or verbally abused because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or if they are transgender.

The report says race remains the most common hate crime, accounting for 55% of all reports to North Yorkshire Police.

It adds that some of these have been related to the Gaza conflict which began on October 7 following the attack by Hamas on Israel.

The police say hate crimes in North Yorkshire most typically occur between midnight and 4am.

There were 14 hate crimes committed against police officers whilst they worked.

The Leeds-based charity Stop Hate UK said:

“We are deeply saddened by the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict, which has resulted in the loss of innocent lives and the suffering of many. We are committed to fostering understanding, empathy and peace among all communities.

“We stand firmly against any actions that promote hatred, discrimination, or violence. Our thoughts are with all those affected by this conflict and we hope for a swift resolution that brings lasting peace to the region.”

The UN Security Council passed a resolution today calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza.

Trading Hell: ‘Report crime so we can cut crime’, says BID manager

This is the fifth in our Trading Hell series of features investigating anti-social behaviour and crime in Harrogate town centre.

All this week, our Trading Hell series of features has been putting the problems faced by central Harrogate businesses under the microscope.

We’ve found out what town-centre traders feel about anti-social behaviour, shoplifting and threats to staff through our unprecedented survey.

We’ve taken a deep dive into the official data to find out what the stats have to say about crime levels in the heart of our town.

We’ve heard from Harrogate Homeless Project about the limits constraining the charity sector’s response to rough sleeping and street drinking.

And we’ve heard from a senior police officer about what North Yorkshire Police are doing to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour and to restore public confidence.

But could there be a better way? Matthew Chapman certainly thinks so. He’s manager of Harrogate BID (business improvement district), and for the last couple of years he’s been leading the charge for the introduction of a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO). He told the Stray Ferret:

“At the moment, the police are on the street and know there’s a problem, but they don’t have the powers to be able to do anything about it. A PSPO would give them the tools to be able to do that.”

Introduced in 2014, PSPOs prohibit specified behaviours and offences from precisely delineated areas. Harrogate introduced one in August 2016 and extended it a year later for another three years. It was tailored to clamp down on street drinking inside the railway and bus stations, Victoria Shopping Centre, and the Victoria and Jubilee multi-storey car-parks. Enforcement officers had the power to ask people to stop drinking in a public place and ‘surrender’ their alcohol. Refusal to hand it over could result in a fixed penalty notice of up to £100.

But that order expired in 2020 and the pandemic lockdown meant there was no need to renew it, so there hasn’t been one in place for the past four years.

A new one is long overdue, according to Matthew Chapman, and an overwhelming majority of central Harrogate businesses appear to agree. Our Trading Hell survey found that 92% of town-centre traders support the introduction of a PSPO.

Graphic showing that 92% of town-centre traders would like to see a public spaces protection order (PSPO) introduced in Harrogate.

Lifestyle choice?

Who is to blame for all the problems that traders face – including anti-social behaviour, street drinking, persistent begging and shoplifting – is a simple question with a complex answer. According to Matthew Chapman, there are several different kinds of offender, but most of the problems are caused by two groups: “homegrown” street drinkers and gangs from out of town.

Photo: Dennis Jarvis/Flickr.

He said:

“We know of people who have got addiction problems, people who have had some kind of trauma in their life – whether it’s in childhood or more recently – and they’ve ended up in a really difficult situation as a result.

“These people deserve the right to support, and health, and care, and there’s a lot of help out there for them. We’ve got Harrogate Homeless Project that can provide counselling, GPs, vets, food and showers; we’ve got North Yorkshire Horizons, which offers support with addiction; we’ve got the rough sleeper coordinators at the council; we have the No Second Night Out provision that allows people access to a hotel room for the night when the temperature’s 2°C or below.

“If all those avenues have been explored, and this person continues to shoplift, continues to perform anti-social behaviour, continues to be a nuisance to society, then we believe the gap is in policing. At this moment in time, those people aren’t breaking the law – and that’s why we’ve been calling for a PSPO to be introduced.”

Does this mean he agrees with former Home Secretary Suella Braverman that rough sleeping is a “lifestyle choice”? He said:

“Some people have chosen that way of life for so long that adapting back into what we would call a ‘normal’ way of living is difficult. We know, for example, that we have a rough sleeper in Harrogate who doesn’t want a council property and prefers living on the streets – prefers that community around him that he trusts.

“Whether it’s a ‘lifestyle choice’… you can pick that wording apart, but we certainly know some people who do choose to live that way rather than taking a local authority housing option.”

People-trafficking gangs

The other main group of people causing problems for town-centre businesses is driven by money rather than personal problems. Some come to beg, others to shoplift, and they are far more flexible in their approach, according to Mr Chapman.

He said:

“We know of national people-trafficking gangs that come in and target places like Harrogate. One of the challenges is that when the police get on top of some of these really high-level groups in a certain area, they swiftly move to a different area, but the information-sharing isn’t there from police constabulary to police constabulary.

“It’s similar to County Lines [the city-based networks that traffic drugs to outlying areas] – once one group is getting tackled a bit more, they’ll literally just move from North Yorkshire to West Yorkshire, or from Greater London to Birmingham, or from Manchester to Glasgow, and it is quite high-level organised crime groups that do these things.”

The bands of professional beggars follow the crowds, he said, often moving seasonally or from event to event, and can make a lot of money:

“There’s a known group of individuals in Harrogate that the police, the council and charities are working with, but that can change daily, weekly, depending on what’s happening in town.

“If the Great Yorkshire Show is on, that can be quite ‘productive’ for certain groups of people, and when the races are on in York, sometimes we’ll see a dip in begging in Harrogate, because York will be the place to go for those people.

“Christmas is really well delivered in Harrogate, and we sometimes get an increase, because there’s footfall, there’s spend, there are people feeling a little bit more generous. So it’s quite targeted, where these people operate.”

Photo of a man begging outside Boots in Harrogate town centre.

As reported in yesterday’s Trading Hell instalment, we put these assertions to Chief Inspector Simon Williamson of North Yorkshire Police, who told us:

“I don’t think we have a specific, identified problem of people targeting the Harrogate area – there’s no evidence to support that – but there are anecdotes to suggest that people have come on occasion.”

Told of Ch Insp Williamson’s response, Mr Chapman said:

“We don’t have access to the level of data that the Chief Inspector would, and it would be really interesting to see where that information has come from.

“But our knowledge has come from being on the ground, day to day, speaking to business owners, speaking to security guards, speaking to the charities. They know what’s going on.”

‘Reporting crime is vital’

Whatever the problems are in Harrogate town centre, and no matter who is causing them, many are hoping that Project Spotlight, the initiative launched last week to step up police patrols in the town centre, will help tackle them.

Mr Chapman also has high hopes for the new town centre support officer that Harrogate BID is currently recruiting. Their job will be to support the police, council and charities, acting as a “middleman” to gather evidence and share information.

They will also be useful in making sure that all crime is reported – a vital measure if a PSPO is to be introduced. In order for North Yorkshire Council to be able to apply for a PSPO, national guidelines dictate that crime figures must demonstrate its necessity. But that’s a level that central Harrogate does not yet reach – officially, at least.

Mr Chapman said:

“The number of actual reports of crime [in central Harrogate] is really low, but the picture on the ground is very different. But if people don’t report the crimes, the crime figures will never be high enough for us to be able to get that PSPO.

“It’s ironic really. I want crime to go down – as everyone does – but I want the figures to go up, just so we’ve got a case when speaking to the police.

“We really cannot stress enough that people need to report crimes, no matter how low their value, because the only way that we’re going to make change is by getting those crime figures up to make the Chief Inspectors listen.”

Case study: How a PSPO helped cut crime and anti-social behaviour in Lincoln

Lincoln has sought to use PSPOs to tackle problems similar to those experienced in Harrogate town centre.

City of Lincoln Council has used the powers over the last nine years to prohibit various kinds of anti-social behaviour, which council leaders, police and other agencies feel have plagued the city.

They range from banning street drinking in the city centre, to prohibiting substance abuse and “loitering” in local car parks.

Photo of part of Lincoln city centre, where the council has introduced a public spaces protection order (PSPO).

Lincoln city centre. Photo: Lincolnian (Brian)/Flickr.

The city’s first ever PSPO was introduced in 2015. It banned the possession and consumption of “legal highs” and alcohol within a defined area of the city centre, and allowed police and council staff to either force people to hand over those substances and move on, or issue a fine if they refused to do so. The order has been renewed every three years and is due for review this year.

A separate PSPO covering three city-centre multi-storey car-parks was first enforced in October 2020. It banned drinking, drug-taking and “congregating in groups of two or more people”, as well as public urination, smoking and any activity likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to any other person.

Figures provided by the council at a meeting to discuss its extension last September show that the PSPO had its desired effect. Incidents of drug-taking dropped from 107 in the three years prior to the order to 35 over the three years the order was in force.

Over the same periods, public order offences dropped only slightly, from 189 to 150. Nevertheless, council officials felt this modest drop justified extending the PSPO for another three years.

Dog attacks child outside Knaresborough school

North Yorkshire Police has appealed for witnesses after a dog attacked a child outside a school in Knaresborough.

In a statement this afternoon, the force said the dog was tied to a fence outside the front gate of St Mary’s Catholic Primary School on Tentergate Road when it bit the child.

The incident happened on Wednesday, March 13 at school pick-up time.

The child required hospital treatment for what police described as “minor injuries”.

The statement said:

“Dog owners are urged take responsibility for their pets. Please do not leave dogs tied up and unattended around school premises near where young children may be playing.”

Anyone who saw the incident or knows the dog owner is urged to contact North Yorkshire Police by calling 101, or emailing jack.bocking@northyorkshire.police.uk, quoting reference 12240045161.

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Trading Hell: ‘We can’t arrest our way out of it’, says police chief

This is the fourth in our Trading Hell series of features investigating anti-social behaviour and crime in Harrogate town centre.

Levels of crime and anti-social behaviour have increased so much in Harrogate town centre that traders are desperate for a stronger police presence, the Stray Ferret has found.

The Trading Hell survey we carried out recently found that more than two in three town-centre businesses (68%) want to see more bobbies on the beat.

So when the Stray Ferret met Chief Inspector Simon Williamson of North Yorkshire Police (NYP) in town to ask him about our findings, it came across as a signal of intent when he was accompanied by a squad of police officers, who headed off in twos with a NYP photographer to patrol the main shopping streets. The officers’ hi-vis stab-vests make for an arresting sight – in recent years they’ve been conspicuous by their absence.

It was, of course, choreographed. More than seven weeks after first asking for an interview, our request was finally granted on the very day Ch Insp Williamson wanted to publicise a new initiative.

Project Spotlight

North Yorkshire Police says Project Spotlight will mean increased patrols and activity in Harrogate town centre to tackle street crime, retail theft, begging, rough sleeping, substance abuse and anti-social behaviour.

Yet despite repeated requests, North Yorkshire Police would not tell us how many officers have been patrolling the town centre up to now, or how often, citing “operational reasons”. So it’s impossible for us to accurately report just how much of an increase Project Spotlight represents. Nor is it clear how long Project Spotlight is set to last.

But in a statement, a spokesperson said:

“Harrogate Inner Neighbourhood Policing Team, which is leading the project, has 20 officers and police community support officers (PCSOs) who will deploy on Project Spotlight patrols. Other officers from other teams will also support the project and can add to patrol numbers when available.”

The initiative officially launched last Wednesday, but it’s a project that Ch Insp Williamson has been considering since he took up his post as officer responsible for North Yorkshire Police’s neighbourhood teams in December. He said:

“I’m conscious that some concerns have been raised to us, and that’s why we’re responding with Project Spotlight. It’s a multi-agency operation which involves partners. Some of the issues that we see in Harrogate and in towns across the country at the moment are complex, multi-dimensional problems and often they involve very vulnerable people, so it’s not a policing-alone sort of solution to resolve.”

Photo of two North Yorkshire Police officers heading towards Victoria Shopping Centre while on patrol in Harrogate town centre.

Project Spotlight will see increased patrols in Harrogate town centre to deter crime and restore public confidence.

‘Lawless’

Whatever the reason for the timing of Project Spotlight, it is sure to be welcomed by traders in Harrogate town centre, but only if they experience noticeable, sustained improvement.

Our survey covered almost all the businesses on Oxford Street, Cambridge Street, Cambridge Road, Market Place and the Victoria Shopping Centre, as well as parts of Beulah Street and James Street. When we spoke to traders, the message came across loud and clear that many of them were sick of the problems that are prevalent in parts of central Harrogate and wanted to see change.

Almost every business polled (96%) said that anti-social behaviour is a problem, and more than two thirds said street-drinking (74%), rough sleeping (70%), begging (68%) and drug misuse (66%) were also problems. One in five (20%) experienced threats to staff at least once a week.

Graphic showing that 74% of Harrogate town centre businesses have lost revenue due to the problems they face trading.

Nearly three in every four businesses (74%) said they had lost trade as a result of some or all of these behaviours.

Some traders used words such as “crisis” and described the town centre as “lawless”.

Ch Insp Williamson is unsurprised. He said:

“No-one should feel unsafe or intimidated within their workplace or within their daily life. These issues you’ve identified all seem to form part of the same picture. Whether that’s the fear of an incident happening because they’re witnessing street drinking or anti-social behaviour, or whether that’s experiencing threats or coercion of any kind, they’re all fundamental to community confidence. They’re part of a picture that I think we need to tackle, and it’s fundamental to our success in policing to restore that confidence.”

Grey area

Official figures reveal that North Yorkshire Police could have been tackling the problem with more vigour, and in fact were doing so until 2020. In that year, the force used the Vagrancy Act 13 times to arrest people for offences such as persistent begging and street drinking, but hasn’t used it once since then. When asked why not, Ch Insp Williamson told us:

“My understanding is that the Act has been repealed.”

But this turns out to be a grey area. The Act was indeed repealed in 2022 by the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, but remains in force until it is replaced. Alternative legislation in the form of the Criminal Justice Bill is making its way slowly through parliament, but in the meantime, the Vagrancy Act can still be used, and is being by police forces across the country. Last year, The Guardian revealed that officers from 29 police forces across England and Wales arrested 1,173 people between 2021 and 2023 – showing that it was an option open to North Yorkshire Police.

‘Organised bands of beggars’

Its continued use would likely be welcomed by Harrogate’s town-centre traders. In our Trading Hell survey, 50% said they would like to see the police given more powers to move people on.

Another concern raised by several store managers was the persistent rumour that some of the problems they face are caused by people from neighbouring cities. We heard stories of “gangs of shoplifters” and “organised bands of beggars” commuting from Leeds, Bradford and elsewhere to take advantage of the “rich pickings” to be found in Harrogate.

But Ch Insp Williamson said the rumours were largely unfounded. He told us:

“I can’t advise exactly how common or frequent it is. It is an issue that occurs nationally, with people travelling to various locations, sometimes seasonally. People do move around.

“I don’t think we have a specific, identified problem of people targeting the Harrogate area – there’s no evidence to support that – but there are anecdotes to suggest that people have come on occasion.”

This contradicts what several other sources have told us. For example, Matthew Chapman, manager of Harrogate BID (business improvement district), said:

“We know of national people-trafficking gangs that come in and target places like Harrogate.”

Ch Insp Williamson denies this. He said:

“There isn’t a strong evidence case for that. Certainly, most of the team know their community very well, they know some of the persistent callers have identified various groups and they’re all well known to us.

“That’s not to say that on occasion we haven’t had people coming from other areas – it does happen – but I wouldn’t suggest that that’s a significant issue for us in Harrogate.”

Response to thefts

One issue that is significant for North Yorkshire Police is the public’s perception of the job they’re doing. When the Stray Ferret spoke to shopkeepers and store managers in central Harrogate, several told us that the police “didn’t do anything” when thefts were reported. One said “they don’t bother if it’s worth less than 200 quid”. Some have even stopped reporting thefts.

Is Ch Insp Williamson worried? He said:

“It worries me that that view is held, and I am concerned that they have that opinion, because that’s not the case. All thefts should be reported to us and should be investigated.

“The way that we investigate them has changed over the years as technology has advanced. Now, our Initial Inquiry team take initial calls for shop theft and will routinely send out an information pack to be completed by traders.

“So, the methods have changed slightly, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t take shop theft extremely seriously, and the impact that can have on traders and their livelihoods.”

Graphic showing that town-centre businesses blame the police more than any other organisation for the problems they face.

‘The solution isn’t to arrest our way out of it’

Equally concerning for the police is the response to another question in our survey. Asked “Which organisations, if any, do you think are failing to meet their responsibilities in tackling these issues?”, 40% of traders explicitly named the police – far more than named any other organisation.

Ch Insp Williamson responded:

“We have a significant part to play in resolving any issues within the community, particularly around community confidence and reassurance, and I take those complaints very seriously.

“The issues are very complex, and they often are involving vulnerable people who are in need of social care and health care and other support, so by no means is it a singular police problem.

“The solution to this problem isn’t to arrest our way out of it. However, I acknowledge that concern and I do take it seriously.”

Tomorrow, we hear from Matthew Chapman, manager of Harrogate BID, about one possible solution to the problems faced by town-centre businesses.

Three arrested following police chase between Harrogate and Ripon

Three people have been arrested following a police chase involving dogs and a helicopter through several villages near Harrogate this afternoon.

North Yorkshire Police said in a statement officers attempted to stop a VW Golf on the A61 at Ripley at about 1.45pm.

The statement added the vehicle raced off and was pursued through Bedlam, Bishop Thornton and Shaw Mills before coming to a stop on a country lane in Markington.

Police and dogs searching for the suspects

It added:

“The occupants ran from the vehicle and a significant amount of resource was sent to the area.

“A police dog was involved in the search and a police helicopter was scrambled to assist with checking on a vast open area.

“A 17-year-old boy, an 18-year-old man and a 20-year-old man were arrested in connection with the incident.”

In an updated statement, the force said searches carried out by police drug dogs found a quantity of “what is suspected to be a class-A drug” was forensically recovered from the side of the road.

Police added the teenager and two men were arrested on suspicion of theft of a motor vehicle, dangerous driving, failing to stop for the police and intent to supply a class-A drug.

All three were interviewed and released on conditional bail.

The Stray Ferret received reports of a large police presence on the verge of the A61 at South Stainley, which runs between Harrogate and Ripon, just after 2.40pm today.

A witness, who was a passenger on a passing bus, said the police appeared to be carrying out a “manhunt”.

Another witness on the same bus added:

“I saw police officers searching along a hedge line and in a field. There were two cars parked and a lady was talking to the police. I’m guessing the other car belonged to whoever they were looking for.

“There were two police vans and four police cars. One of them drove of at speed towards Nidd, behind South Stainley.”

The VW Golf

A member of Markington Village Facebook group also said a car went “racing through” the village followed by “six police cars after it”.

Someone commented on the post to add the police had been “looking for someone on foot who has gone through the fields”.

The Stray Ferret was also alerted to a large police presence in Killinghall.

Reports say the A61 Ripon Road between Killinghall and Ripley is also closed.

Police CCTV appeal after Harrogate Waitrose theft

North Yorkshire Police has issued CCTV images of two people they wish to speak to following a Harrogate shop theft.

The theft took place at Waitrose on Station Parade at approximately 1.15pm on Sunday, February 4.

Officers said spirits and champagne to the value of £887 were taken from the store.

A spokesperson said:

“Please contact us if you recognise the people pictured on CCTV, as we believe they may have information that will assist our investigation.”

Anyone with information is advised to speak to Fiona.Wilding@northyorkshire.police.uk or call 101 quoting reference 12240022503.

Contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

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