Anti-social behaviour and incidents of serious violence have dropped since a police operation was introduced to target Cumbrian hotspots.
Operation Enhance began in July last year following a £1 million injection from the Government, secured by the county’s crime commissioner David Allen.
The operation included extra patrols in the hotspots to deter crime and officers also gathered feedback from people about their perception of crime.
Now, the office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner has released new figures as the operation comes to an end.
It said:
- Since the operation began on July 1 and February 28 this year, across all hotspot areas, anti-social behaviour has decreased from 860 reports during the same period in 2023/2024 to 551.
- Serious violence has also reduced from 72 reports in 2023/2024 to 57 reports in 2024/2025.
The extra patrols have influenced other crime types in the hotspots, the commissioner’s office said.
According to its figures, it said there were 83 burglary offences since the start of the operation compared to 133 in the same period the year before.
Vehicle offences also reduced to 40 reports, compared to 62 in the same period in 2023/2024.
Gemma McManus is the joint centre manager at the Lookout Community Hub and is lay Minister at St Barnabas and St Luke’s churches in Raffles, Carlisle.
Raffles was one of the hotspot areas targeted over the last eight months.
She said: “It’s great to see police in the local community – it makes a difference and stops people from committing crimes when they see the police.
“I’d love to see more local police officers in Raffles. Local officers know the community and actively deter and prevent crime. I know this is something that the commissioner and Chief Constable are working towards and it’s good to know that we are being listened to in Raffles.
“I’m really proud to be part of the community here and I want everyone to feel safe when out and about, more officers will help with this.”
Mr Allen said: “Operation Enhance is all about making communities feel safer and more welcoming to residents whilst deterring crime.
“I’m incredibly pleased to hear from residents, such as Gemma that they are seeing a difference in their communities. We all deserve to live in a community where we feel safe – I will be continuing to work with the Chief Constable to ensure that residents stay safe and see police officers on their streets.
“A reduction of anti-social behaviour and serious violence is a tremendous success and what we don’t want is to see this rise.
“The Chief Constable and I launched a Neighbourhood Policing Pledge at the beginning of the year outlining how we are going to keep communities safe and we will be receiving an extra £1.7m from the Government’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee that ringfences that money for extra neighbourhood officers, PSCOs and special constables.
Chief Superintendent Andy Wilkinson said: “It is clear that the dedicated, high-visibility patrols have had a significant positive impact across the hotspot areas.
“The feedback we have had from the communities in these areas, including from people approaching our Operation Enhance officers while they are on patrol, has been extremely positive.
“While the funding for extra patrols has come to an end, I can assure the public that tackling antisocial behaviour and serious violence will remain a very top priority for the constabulary and that the best elements of Operation Enhance are adopted moving forward.”
