Community Policing Inspector, Neil Birkett, thanks Woolton residents for feedback following deployment of Dispersal Orders.
“As a community policing team we are always trying to get at what we do for you and if you follow us on social media you’ll have seen that we recently ran a survey.
“The survey asked for people’s views about our recent use of Dispersal Orders, which are temporary additional powers that we sometimes use to move people out of an area if they are causing, or likely to cause, disorder or anti-social behaviour.
“We received some really useful feedback from more than 50 respondents which I really appreciate, as surveys can be time-consuming and people can get a lot of them from different organisations.
“What is clear to me is that people welcome seeing more community police officers and PCSOs on the streets to deal with the issues in the village on the nights where there was mass gatherings and street drinking. As the extra police presence helps people feel safe. And they like that we had enhanced powers to deal with that situation, for example, having the power to arrest someone if they didn’t leave the area when we had legitimate grounds to direct them away.
“The survey feedback also tells me there is much more work to do, particularly around how we communicate our use of Dispersal Orders and other police powers, and explain what they are and why we use them.
“Woolton, like many other areas, has lots of different people living there who like to receive information in lots of different ways. And whilst efforts were made in advance to let local residents, businesses and community leaders know about the policing approach, we will keep exploring new ways we can talk to you and listen to your views.
“We will keep using our Liverpool Police Facebook page and @MerpolSthLiverpool Twitter account to let you know what is going on. And you can tell us what you think either through our force website www.merseysidepolice.uk or from the poll and surveys we will keep circulating. My PCSOs will hold drop-in surgeries in south Liverpool in future months, so if you know someone who doesn’t tend to go online often, look out for them and pass the details on.
“Woolton is a fantastic place to live or work and my team will continue to work with local people and our colleagues in the council to keep it that way.”
