What police say they are doing to tackle crime in Southampton

Chief Inspector Marcus Kennedy took on his role just three months ago having moved from Portsmouth where he worked an inspector.

He has vowed to make changes and tackle a range of issues that have plagued the city for a number of years. 

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Chief inspector Marcus Kennedy (Image: Daily Echo, Emily Liddell)

Here are five issues the police say they are taking on:

Knife crime

He said: "What I was concerned about was the level of violent crime and knife crime with juveniles and young people.

"Youth violence with knives sits under that most serious violence, we are really focusing on how to reduce that.

"We have a number of operations in place where we are focusing on not just individuals but groups and networks.

"Yes we do have challenges around county lines and drugs networks, and also some individuals that seem to choose the option to carry a knife.

"We have really good information and intelligence with our partners and with our officers on the ground to understand who those individuals are.

"The key thing for us really is about prevention, getting into the schools and doing education pieces.

"We've got contracts with the schools now where we have a centralised team who have specialised school liaison officers who go across the whole county education on these issues as well.

"For me, prevention is so important, it is a huge part of what we do in policing. I'm a huge advocate of prevention."

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Violence against women and girls

He said: "I went out into the nighttime economy in Southampton a couple of weeks ago with some of my officers, and I was surprised how busy and how big it was.

"What we weren't looking for years ago was those predatory individuals targeting predominantly women and girls.

"We've learnt a lot.

"Now, a large proportion of what we do with the nighttime economy and Operation Defender is to train our officers and to work with our partners to target those predatory males who our out there looking for opportunities to target lone and vulnerable individuals.

"Our officers involved in Operation Defender go to a briefing every Friday and Saturday, and they are briefed by the sergeant for what their priorities are, what intelligence we have."

They are all trained now on what to look for and how to target predatory males.

He said: "They also know how to look after vulnerable individuals as well who might have gone out and got themselves a bit drunk or have just got separated from their friends."

Antisocial motorbike use and theft

He said: "I knew that prior to me coming into the city there had been some serious offences.

"It's one of those things where not only is it a theft and you have a victim from that, the bike very rarely comes back in the same condition, and then you've got the antisocial behaviour on top of that.

"What we have done is some proactive work in and around the area to target those individuals.

"We have got a really strong intelligence picture on who is involved and the challenges around them.

"What we know we can do is target those individuals.

"The challenge we've got is catching someone in the process of stealing a motorbike.

"What I've done since I've come in is I've asked for an action plan within our control room.

"So when a motorbike is reported stolen or someone is seen on a motorbike acting suspiciously, what would normally happen is if we don't have the resources for it to get deployed to there and then.

"What I have asked for is that we do want that deployed to, we do want officers to go to that location because there is no doubt we will then locate that motorbike, recover it, and catch the persons in the act.

"Antisocial behaviour is one of those crimes that people often don't think we care about, but we do.

"The challenge is finding the resources to go and deal with it."

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Burglaries

He said: "With burglaries, what you will see traditionally is that with inflation and cost of living there will be a theft crime rise.

"What we saw in the pandemic was an all-time low because everyone was at home.

"Burglaries are nowhere near the levels they were pre-pandemic.

"But, you're right, we have seen an increase.

"What the Constabulary has done is shift our position and move our resources around making sure that for every dwelling burglary the officer now will come out to do that investigation.

"It wasn't always the case, and I would struggle with it, if my parents were burgled I would expect a police officer to come out to that. That is the service we now provide, which is only right."

Cannabis factories

He said: "We live and breathe on intelligence.

"When people report stuff to us, either on 101, or 999 if it's an emergency, or on the online system, that is never wasted.

"If someone takes the time to go online and report that they can smell cannabis coming from somewhere, like a lock-up or a large building, that will always come through to us.

"And what that does is build a picture.

"In theory, we can then respond to that and go 'right, do we need a warrant for that address or do we need to go and visit that address as a matter of urgency'.

"That's why we ask your readers to always please tell us, it does matter.

"The cannabis factory we found in the city and the one we found last month with 2,000 plants in it is probably the largest I've seen in Hampshire.

"There are two elements to this.

"Firstly, organised crime, it takes a significant organisation, and structure, and finance to set that up. Then the production of that cannabis will then go on to fund criminality.

"The other side of it is that there is an element of modern-day slavery around this.

"Some of those people who are looking after the plants are not the top of the criminal food chain, and those individuals are quite often victims of modern-day slavery.

"There's always a bigger picture.

"I've been in conversation about getting together a structure to search and target cannabis factories in the city.

"It's not just someone growing a little bit of cannabis to make some money, it's organised crime and victims of modern-day slavery.

"We are going to be aggressive in going after those organised criminals who quite frankly are coming into the city to make money."

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