It’s much appreciated – a decade of support for community policing from our security team at Wythenshawe Town Centre

Our site support manager at Wythenshawe Town Centre was proud to get the following testimonial recently for our security team from one of the local neighbourhood officers who has been covering the town centre for over ten years.

Here’s what they said: “During that time I have been able to consistently rely on the unwavering support of the security staff who have assisted me in bringing several hundred separate offences to a successful conclusion in the courts.

This has been in the form of proactive communication from the staff to me in response to live incidents at the stores, provision of CCTV, written evidence, local knowledge, general nous, and even assisting in terms of physically chasing after and detaining offenders who are resistant or violent.

Without exception this has been done in a proportionate, legal and responsible manner.

But early this month, the staff excelled even their own remarkably high standards.

A report of suspicious circumstances at Poundland led to myself and one of the security officers making our way to Poundstretcher nearby and catching a man in the act of “bagging up” shampoo to a significant value. The man, from outside of the city, and his accomplice, tried to “bluff” their way out before the details of what they were doing were passed to us. Immediately, your security guard pursued on foot, detaining one of them who was making his way back to his parked car, whilst I detained the other. Immediately, another of your officers tracked the movements of the two back to their car which we were otherwise unaware of. This CCTV was provided to us and has provided crucial evidence.

Your third officer assisted by coming with me to the parked car where we discovered thousands of pounds of evidently stolen designer clothing, still with security tags and price tags attached – and several hundred pounds worth of sunglasses, fragrances, Duracell batteries and thirty seven bottles of shampoo.

I was in a position where I needed to take statements and deal with the prisoners, whilst also needing to preserve the valuables in the car, which also contained a number of foil lined bags which are used to disable electronic security tagging systems in stores.

The third officer assisted with the examination of the inside of the vehicle and also waited with it for several minutes whilst other police officers came to recover it. He  also kindly offered to assist in the seizure of these goods.

The following day one man was charged with driving with no licence and no insurance, and going equipped for theft, and he also had his car seized.

The other was charged with going equipped for theft, attempted theft, and was also wanted in Bristol for the high value theft of designer clothing at the start of the year.

We suspect that these two individuals are part of a ‘professional’ network of shoplifters operating nationwide with no discernible connection to Wythenshawe or the local area.

Without the assistance of the staff it is unlikely I would have been able to pull all the evidence together in good time.

Both have been remanded in police custody until they appear in the Magistrates Court. Regardless of the outcome, I hope both will reflect on their visit to Wythenshawe Civic Centre and perhaps cross it off their list of preferred shopping destinations in the future.

Thank you to the team, as always. However, on this occasion, they have gone even further above and beyond to deliver a quite brilliant result.”