PCC visited South Bristol and police Drone unit

Last Friday (26th July), Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), Clare Moody met with community leaders driving multi-agency working to address youth violence, anti-social behaviour and exploring ways to keep communities safe in South Bristol. Clare also visited the police’s Drone unit in North Somerset.

Clare started the day with a meeting at the recently refurbished Broadbury police station where she met with community activists Carol Casey, Tina Bond, and Inspector Chris Tarr. Councillor Lisa Durston for Filwood Ward also joined the meeting later. Carol talked about the work she was doing to bring communities together to tackle crime and community concerns in the area e.g. picking and clean up days, forums to discuss community concerns and explore solutions. Carol is an advocate of multi-agency approach to address some of the current community challenges in South Bristol.

Carol has been active in Knowle West for decades and led or set up many community organisations as a passionate advocate for more and better public services on the estate. Carol is also a member of the Independent Advisory Group (IAG).

Tina Bond, Chair of the Anti-Social Behaviour for Young People in the area talked about their pilot project working with five schools in the area targeting Year 6 pupils who are at risk of exclusion. The work includes supporting parents and carers.

From this meeting PCC Clare visited the police’s Drone unit in North Somerset. She met with Sgt Colin Powell from the Drone unit and received a presentation about the wide areas of policing that the Drone unit assist with, ranging from searching for missing people to help policing large events. Spt Powell showed Clare around the bespoke van used to transport the Officers and equipment around the force, before then watching a drone flight from Sgt Powell.