SERIOUS violence and disorder has ‘fallen off a cliff’ in areas targeted by an operation, a police chief has claimed.

David Allen, Cumbria’s police, fire and crime commissioner (PFCC), has spoken about the impact of Operation Enhance in targeting anti-social behaviour and violent crime across the county.

An additional £1 million of funding from the Home Office is being used for extra police patrols in 18 areas identified as hotspots for anti-social behaviour and/or serious violence across Cumbria.

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Mr Allen said: “What we’ve decided to do with that is to pay for additional officers to be on the streets, more overtime etc, highly visible wearing the hi-vis jackets dealing with anti-social behaviour.

“They’re not there to stand around looking pretty, they’re there to actually get stuck in and deal with the anti-social behaviour when it happens.”

Areas targeted include parts of Carlisle, Barrow, Workington, Whitehaven, Kendal, Penrith, Maryport, Cleator Moor, Ulverston and Bowness-on-Windermere.

According to police statistics the 18 hotspots account for only 0.04 per cent of Cumbria geographically but makes up for 24.3 per cent of all serious violence and 23.1 per cent of all anti-social behaviour reported in the county.

Mr Allen added: “It’s a big issue in a really tiny geographical area.”

Inspector Damien Mottram told the Local Democracy Reporting Service across the Westmorland and Furness area there has been over 300 additional police visits to hotspot areas under Operation Enhance and anti-social behaviour has fallen by over 40 per cent compared to the July to August period in 2023.

Mr Allen said: “Incidents of serious violence and disorder have fallen off a cliff in those areas because we’ve targeted them. We can only do that because we’ve had reports of disorder and  anti-social behaviour in those places.

“Please report it, don’t think it’ll have no effect, more reporting leads to more police in that area so we can target and deal with the issues.”

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The commissioner also spoke of his commitment to maintaining frontline police services despite the need to make savings.

Mr Allen said: “I’ve inherited the need to make £16 million worth of savings in the next five years. That’s been what’s left to me. We have a plan for that and the force are working through that.

“Now we want to make sure that does not impact on the frontline so services are maintained. That is a commitment I gave, and it is a commitment I intend to make sure happens.

“We want to make sure the anti-social behaviour patrols continue. Obviously when the funding ends in March, which is quite a long way away so we can do a lot between now and March, if there is opportunity for additional funding under any of the Home Office grants, we’ll be applying for it rest assured.

“But if not we’ll make sure the neighbourhood policing teams, the CBO’s (Community Beat Officer), the PCSO’s (Police Community Support Officer) are actually in the town centres and are enabled to do what they need to do.”