People in Stockton are ordering illegal substances from as far away as California and receiving them via mail, councilors have been told.
Chief Inspector Dan Heron of Stockton’s neighborhood policing unit noted the pattern at a Safer Stockton Partnership meeting. He stated: “These are examples in which people order medications from outside the nation. They could be in various quantities, for personal use, or for purchasing cannabis in California or heroin elsewhere.
“We’ve seen a substantial spike in Stockton in response to it. Whereas the pressure from agencies is rightfully focused on street deals, we are seeing a larger trend, and this is true nationally as well, of people ordering drugs from other countries and using the postal service to get them in, so it’s worth noting that extra bit of pressure we’re seeing now.”
He gave Stockton crime numbers for the last year, which totaled 22,239 crimes, 2,844 lower than the previous year. Homicide, death or injury due to driving, and vehicle crime all increased from the previous year, with death or injury due to driving rising from five to seventeen.
However, most other crimes were reduced, with rape down 29%, stalking and harassment down over 20%, theft down 53%, public disorder down 27.5%, and drug trafficking down nearly 10%.
According to Chf Insp Heron, between May 2023 and April 2024, there will be a 10% decline from the preceding year. Vehicle crime has been a priority for us; we’ve made some excellent arrests, made some progress, and seen a slight decline in that. We are now in our 13th consecutive month of total crime decrease. For the previous 13 months, we have reduced crime. Even at this time of year, we expect a decline.
Off-road Bikes are Still a Total Disaster
Anti-social behavior increased by 4.1% over the previous year to 4,711 incidents, although Chf Insp Heron stated, “ASB in May was 396 reports and in June we were down by 39% as a result of partnership working with the council and local charities.”
He also stated that there was a 57% decline between May and June: “We did a lot of work with civic officers and partners in Billingham town center and Thornaby so that work does have an impact.”
He stated that approximately 800 persons answered a survey, with anti-social conduct, drugs, and burglary being their top three priorities. He stated that off-road bikes were not among the top three priorities, but “not a day goes by that we don’t receive multiple reports of off-road bikes.” They’re just an absolute nightmare.”
He continued, “We’ve seen big reductions in burglary month after month, and we’ve made some good headway on that front. It contributes to the perception of crime, fear of crime, and actual crime.
‘Real Decline in Burglaries’
“We conducted Operation Artemis, our force’s reaction to organized severe crime. We attempted to focus on the fear of crime through various forms of participation.
Councillor Steve Nelson stated that home burglaries decreased by 3% for the entire year, but when comparing April 2023 to April 24, there was a 29.6% fall in residential burglary and a 56% reduction in commercial burglary. He asked, “Is that just a complete outlier? It is almost too fantastic to be true.
Chf Insp Heron stated, “Hopefully, this is a trend that will continue.” Certainly, in recent months, we have arrested a number of our key burglars who have committed numerous crimes, including vehicle crimes.
“It’s a genuine reduction which hopefully we’re going to build on and continue.”
Superintendent John Wrintmore, district commander for Stockton, stated, “Just to give you some kind of snapshot of comparisons for residential burglary, in June we had a 39% reduction compared to the previous June, May 17%, April 30%, March a whopping 57% reduction, February 34%, and January 31%.” The picture is the same for robbery as well.”