Humberside Police say they are continuing to deal with frequent reports of anti-social behaviour, street drinking and open drug-taking on Jameson Street in Hull city centre.
They say that as a result of the level of complaints from local traders they are looking to address the issue.
Inspector Julian Hart of Hull’s local community policing team said, “Last week PCSO Paul Chalmers surveyed 25 businesses on Jameson Street as part of our Force-wide initiative to hear about local issues.
“Paul is a familiar face to the local businesses in Hull so they often let him know of the issues they are experiencing. Humber Talking is a Force-wide initiative to survey as many local people and business as possible to hear their concerns over crime and anti-social behaviour.
“Of course we didn’t need this survey to tell us that the main problems businesses on Jameson Street are having is to do with frequent street-drinking, drug-taking and the related anti-social behaviour.
“We continue to work with our colleagues in Hull City Council, local homeless and drugs charities to deal with these issues.
“We act on information from members of the public to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour in Hull city centre, sometimes this means we arrest people if offences are committed or brought to our attention. Several people have been arrested in the past week in the city centre and we will not let up on our approach to dealing with this type of behaviour.
“Arresting people is not always the solution as drug addiction is a complicated area which is not only resolved by being arrested. We regularly direct people to support services to help them to deal with their complex problems, both in custody and on the streets. Arrest should not be always be seen as the end of the process, in many cases, it is the beginning of further work we implement to reduce further offences.
“The new Humber Talking mobile, community drop-in ‘pod’ is currently in Hull city centre and is open for business (not 24 hours – both Clough Road and Osbourne Street stations are open to public enquiries from 7am to 11pm seven days a week), we want people to drop in to the pod to talk about issues they have in their own community and we can discuss how we can call help make life better for everyone in Hull.
“We have received some really positive feedback about the use of the POD in Hull City Centre. It’s not the only solution in itself but it allows us right into the heart of this important community.”
