CRIME in the Wellington area dropped in December, town councillors were told. Burglaries, in particular, were down from eight to one, and there were four thefts compared to 13 in November. There were also seven fewer cases of arson and criminal damage.

Kate Forrest, temporary police sergeant at the Wellington station, reported: “During December there were 239 calls to the police from members of the public relating to Wellington. This was down by 45 calls on the 284 received during November.

“In addition to the calls to 101 and 999, members of the public also reported crime, ASB and other incidents online and contacted officers directly via email and their police issued mobile phones. People also used the Wellington Neighbourhood Policing Team Facebook page to get in touch with the team.

“The team spent time engaging with the public at many community events across the town during December and the lead up to Christmas and New Year.

“As part of our patrols Op Tonic was in operation - a police operation focusing on drink and/or drug driving. The operation ran for a longer period than normal to take into consideration the World Cup. We arrested one person for drink driving in the town centre and they have been charged to court for failing to provide a sample for analysis.

“I joined the team in the beginning of December, taking over from Sgt Dan Bishop who has been successful in passing his Inspectors exam and is currently leading a project around file improvement. I was part of the Taunton Neighbourhood Policing Team for over five years and spent the last year as one of the two Sgts on that team tackling ongoing issues. I personally led a project around the violence in Taunton associated with a group of youths.

“I’ve been in Avon and Somerset Police for over 15 years, starting my career in Bridgwater before moving to Cheddar to be the Beat Manager there. I returned to Bridgwater where I continued with my neighbourhood policing work before moving across to Taunton where I spent some time on response before becoming the rural beat manager for Taunton. My passion is rural policing, preventing crime and seeking out the voices of those underrepresented or difficult to reach.

“There were 40 incidents of ASB reported to the police during December and the number of crimes reported and recorded across Wellington during the month of December was 85.This is a reduction in crimes from November where there were 103 crimes reported.

Crime broken down for December were: Assaults against the person 15 (November 14), Malicious communications 10 (7), Harassment/stalking 9 (7), Possession of weapons 1 (1), Threats to kill 3 (2), Coercive and controlling behaviour 2 (0), Burglary 1 (8), Thefts 4 (13), Robbery 0 (0), Arson and criminal damage 10 (17), Public order offences 11 (11), Vehicle offences 9 (4), Sexual offences 3 (3), Miscellaneous offences 7 (15), Drug offences 0 (1).