This month we’ve celebrated yet more strong results from Northumbria’s rural crime crackdown Operation Checkpoint. 100 vehicles were stopped and many arrests were made. We’re really building up momentum with fighting and preventing crime in our more rural and isolated communities and I believe with the recent formation of the Northumberland Partnership Against Rural Crime there will be plenty more success stories on the way. From new technologies to additional resources, together we will continue to do all we can to crackdown on crime and make rural Northumberland safer for all.

Everyone at the first NPARC meeting earlier this month.

Community centres, sports clubs, youth groups and park projects are among the latest grass root causes set to benefit from my Operation Payback scheme that uses cash stripped from criminals across the North East and returns it back to the heart of the community.

This money is now being used to fund work such as Pallion Action Group’s ‘Care To Achieve Project’ that offers support and opportunity to young people caught up in ASB and the criminal justice system and Leam Lane amateur boxing in Gateshead’s ‘Fit to Feed’ summer holiday sessions. There’s no better use for cash seized from crime than channelling it right back into our communities – particularly areas that need it the most. Read more here.

Visiting Pallion Action Group for a residents' meeting.

TOGETHER WE STAND AGAINST HATE

Hate. Most of us are appalled by it and most of us here in the North East desperately want to stop it.

And so I was delighted to welcome colleagues from across the country to Newcastle earlier this month for our eagerly anticipated and Covid-delayed Hate Crime Conference. It was an opportunity to discuss how we are tackling hate, supporting victims, and challenging unwanted behaviour in our communities. Also this month, Northumbria Police applied for the first-ever hate crime related banning order. This followed the successful conviction of someone in our area for the online racial abuse of a Premier League Footballer – they’re now banned from entering any sports stadium in the country. That is a result. It highlights how seriously our police take reports of this kind and paves the way for other forces to follow.

Speaking at the Hate Crime Conference in Newcastle