Police made 72 arrests during a six week crack down to make Southend safer.

The incidents were in connection with a range of offences and more than 300 incident including 22 arrests for public order offences and 16 arrests for assault.

Officers made the arrests as part of operation union in a bid to keep Southend seafront safe throughout the summer.

We provided additional, high visibility patrols each afternoon, evening and every weekend resulting in 2,849 people being stopped and asked to account for themselves, 22 arrests for public order offences and 16 arrests for common assault.

From speaking to the public and partners, officers completed 178 intelligence reports and shared a number of those with partners each week as part of the operation.

Police arrested people for offences including:

9 for drug-related offences

8 for possession of offensive weapons

6 people who were wanted

6 assaults on emergency workers

5 for drink or drug driving

5 for ABH

4 for attempted/theft of motor vehicles

Chief Inspector Ian Hughes, District Commander, said “Southend seafront was open for business, and those who visited this great part of Essex and behaved were more than welcome.

“But we made ourselves clear right from the start, anyone who wanted to come to the area to cause anti-social behaviour or commit crime was not, and never will be welcome and that their behaviour will not be tolerated.

”We are committed to tackling anti-social behaviour and violent crime and to increase the public’s feeling of safety.

 


“Reassurance is one of our top priorities; just chatting to people and making sure things are running smoothly helps everyone. We even popped into licensed premises to check there were no issues, making 779 visits.

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“The positive effect of our presence meant we had lots of engagement with people telling us how happy they were to see us and lots of children came over and spoke to us and had their photo taken with our officers and cars.

“Business owners have supported our efforts and welcomed our presence. 

“We are already working on similar plans for summer 2022. Hopefully this will be the first summer without any COVID restrictions and even more people will come to Southend seafront to spend some enjoyable family time in our great borough.

"Our priorities will remain the same, reduce anti-social behaviour and prevent violent crime, and we will continue to target those who would want to harm Southend’s reputation.

“To this aim, this work will continue and officers will continue to patrol Southend seafront and monitor the transport networks to see who is coming into Southend to prevent and detect crime. And our plans will continue with the support of our partners for as long as we are needed.

“We are already working on similar plans for summer 2022. Hopefully this will be the first summer without any COVID restrictions and even more people will come to Southend seafront to spend some enjoyable family time in our great borough."