Officers on the streets to listen to residents

Members of the Rochdale North and South Neighbourhood Policing Teams were speaking to residents as part of a Forcewide initiative during March.

The drive saw officers and PCSOs patrol the Grouse Street, Duke Street areas of Rochdale North and Ashfield Lane and Balderstone Road areas of Rochdale South conducting household surveys with the residents.

Part of the survey saw the officers ask residents if they knew who their local policing teams were, how to contact them and what issues were of most concern to them in their area.

The home visits were designed to give members of the Neighbourhood Policing Teams the chance to introduce themselves to the community and to find out what concerns the public had about their area.

Inspector Lin Houldershaw, for Rochdale North Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “It is important for us to get the local views of residents who may not otherwise have had the opportunity to voice their concerns.

“The staff conducting the questionnaires found the interactions to be very useful and hopefully will have been the basis for forging better links with the communities. The police issues raised, such as criminal damage, youth nuisance and drugs are now been tackled with additional targeted patrols.

“The non-crime issues are being taken up by the local authority such as litter, dog fouling and street lighting. We will be following this activity up with a newsletter reporting back to residents on the work undertaken.”