Police have been using metal detectors to crack down on drugs and weapons in the centre of Bournemouth.

Operation Fireglow aims to put officers from the neighbourhood policing team into the town to be a visible presence.

Officers from the team speak to members of the public in the community on their patrols in areas identified as hotspots, providing a visible deterrent to anti-social behaviour.

Acting Inspector on patrol Dan Cullen described the aims of the operation.

Bournemouth Echo: Acting Inspector Dan Cullen

“What we’re trying to achieve is to avoid high levels of ASB and prevent any serious offending,” Acting Insp. Cullen said.

“The potential in the gardens and in the town centre for serious crime is there, so the preventative approach, it tries to reduce the demand. By putting the neighbourhood teams in to be preventative, what that hopefully achieves is reducing the demand on the frontline officers.

“What it hopefully does is reassure the public and get a bit of confidence in Dorset Police that we are listening.

“That’s what we’re trying to achieve, to make everybody that comes to that area, make them feel safe and try and avoid anyone being a victim of crime.”

Bournemouth Echo: Neighbourhood police team officers near the pier in Bournemouth town centre.

PC Jack Wedlake, from the neighbourhood team, said they try to build the relationship with the community and those that are known to the police.

“There are a lot of people that we come into contact with quite regularly through good and bad reasons,” he said.

“Even those that are offenders we’d rather get on the right side of them so we can help them forward.”

The operation also targets knife crime, with a metal detector being used in the gardens to find hidden blades or drugs paraphernalia, with foliage being cut back in problem areas.

Bournemouth Echo: Neighbourhood police team officer using a metal detector in the gardens.

The team works in conjunction with a number of partners, including BCP Council and the British Transport Police.

Acting Inspector Cullen said the council’s camera operators are ‘invaluable’ to the work of the officers.

“They have our police radios, so when they see things they can communicate that to officers on the ground live time. Officers can be directed literally to where something has just been stashed,” he said.

“Every year, we are communicating with the council. All those things about the foliage being cut back, better lighting being put in, higher quality cameras being put in, more cameras being put in. That’s something that is an ongoing partnership, it’s just business as usual.”

Bournemouth Echo: Knife arch in use at Bournemouth station.

Alongside the neighbourhood team, British Transport Police made use of a knife arch at Bournemouth Station to prevent knives bring brought into the town.

Plain clothes officers work with the BTP and the neighbourhood officers to spot individuals who may avoid the arch on purpose or act suspiciously around it.

This resulted in six searches on Friday, July 21, with three people dealt with for reported drug possession. 

While the knife arch is not always in use at the station, the neighbourhood team runs Operation Fireglow runs every week to reduce ASB and crime in Bournemouth town centre.

On Friday evening, officers made four arrests, issued one community resolution, conducted six stop searches and issued two dispersal notices instructing individuals to leave the town.

The neighbourhood team also searched for a missing person and responded to several reports of parties on Bournemouth beach.