Everyone has a role to play in fighting crime and the public are being encouraged to help their local community by keeping an eye on public areas such as local parks, children’s play areas, community centres and churches.
If you witness any suspicious 'workmen' at churches with vans, ladders or scaffolding, etc or see any unusual people that look out of place then firstly try to make contact with the building owners to verify if these people are genuine. If you cannot then call Suffolk Police immediately on 999 so that the credentials of the workmen can be checked. Suffolk Police would much prefer to respond to a 'false alarm' than miss the opportunity to apprehend criminals in the act.
Any activity witnessed during the hours of darkness should always be treated as suspicious and a 999 phone call should be made straight away.
Suffolk Police’s Babergh Crime Reduction Officer Verity Line said: “Churches and community centres are often targeted in rural areas as they are often isolated and away from houses. They often as well do not have high-tech security systems and burglar alarms as they do not have the funding.
“Sadly they place a lot of trust in the fact that these are either places of worship or for the community to gather. But there are individuals out there who do not respect these places and will steal from them.”
There have been some positive results when members of the public have called in with information. Any information passed to us will be acted quickly on and just may help to bring an offender to justice. Just one piece of information could be vital in helping detect and in turn, solve crimes.
We completely understand that some people may have concerns about contacting police with their suspicions, but let us reassure them that all information received by us remains confidential and is thoroughly analysed and researched by experienced officers before and if, any police action is taken.
Police want people to look out for the unusual; some activity or behaviour which strikes them as ‘not quite right’ and out of place in their normal day-to-day lives.
When calling in with any information it would be highly useful for the police to know details of any individuals or vehicles seen such as a height, build, hair colour and length, complexion, clothing and any identifying marks such as scars, tattoos and piercings. With vehicles the licence plate is vital, along with the make model and colour, the number of passengers and any logos, graphics or damage on and to the vehicle.
Nevertheless however small the information we want to hear from you.