Hello and thanks for taking the time to read what we hope will become a regular blog on the I LOVE SELLY OAK news section of this website. The aim of this new weekly blog is to provide the community in and around Selly Oak with up to date information on the activity your Neighbourhood Policing Team carry out during their working week. It’s also a chance for you to interact with the team and have your say!

The Selly Oak neighbourhood police team work a 3x3x3 shift pattern; three earlies, three lates and three rest days with a training day planned every nine weeks. You can find out more information about the officers, area and meetings we hold by following this link http://bit.ly/1fJwf0n.

Today (Friday, March 7) the team are on earlies tackling the local priorities set by the community this morning; parking and traffic issues outside two of our local schools – Raddlebarn and St Mary’s – a chance to engage with parents, pupils and those motorists who choose (and I stress the word choose here) to drive and park in a manner that potentially causes a danger to pedestrians coming and going from school.

In addition to this, I have one officer conducting offender management visits to those people who pose a risk around crime and ASB, an officer making follow up visits to victims of acquisitive crime, an officer spending time with victims of domestic abuse who provides onward referral to our supporting partners and an officer visiting students in Bournbrook who have been holding noisy parties into the early hours – these houses will get a warning from the Police and Student Guild that should any noise continue we will work with the landlord, University and the City Council to resolve the issue – I will explain this process and give examples in a further blog.

Looking forward to the weekend, we have plain clothes detectives and uniformed officers working around the Bournbrook area on Friday and Saturday evenings to identify and target offenders committing robberies. February saw a rise in the frequency of these offences which has been well documented on local social media, however we have now charged one male with robbery who is due to appear at court in the near future and have a further male on police bail allowing us to make further enquiries.

If you ever have concerns about suspicious activity in your area, please contact us on 101 for non-emergencies and 999 for emergencies – Alternatively, you can e-mail our police team anytime with your concerns at sellyoak@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk. Also, follow us on Twitter @SellyOakPolice for updates on police activity. You can find this information on http://bit.ly/1fJwf0n

~Sergeant Simon Williams, Selly Oak Neighbourhood Police Team