Hull West inspector wants to create ownership within communities

As a family man with a passion for neighbourhood policing, Hull West’s new inspector is hoping to work with the communities in the area and foster a safe environment for all.

“I have a particular interest in early intervention and breaking the cycle of offending behaviour,” says Insp Dave Lonsdale. “My passion has always been frontline work within the community.”

For someone who has worked in an impressive amount of roles throughout his 18 years at Humberside Police, that is not something that is said lightly.

“I have worked in incident response and neighbourhood policing at all levels in the East Riding and northern Lincolnshire. I have also spent time in public order roles, CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological or Nuclear) and search teams. In addition to this, I am a qualified detective, having spent some time in Grimsby and Scunthorpe as a Detective Sergeant.

“I am also a wildlife officer. I love animals and, having been born and raised in South Africa until the age of 12, I was fortunate enough to have the space and climate to keep a variety of what may be considered unusual pets, such as chameleons, snakes – even a monkey for a short while!”

After South Africa, Insp Lonsdale grew up in York, before meeting his wife and moving to the East Riding and working in most parts of our force area.

“This will be the first time I have worked in Hull and I am really looking forward to meeting the people and getting to know the community.”

Even though this is a new area to him Insp Lonsdale is confident that, with his experience and working alongside the team already in place, he can help make west Hull a safer place to live, work and visit.

“Although it’s a new location for me, the concerns are often similar. Anti-social behaviour is a concern in neighbourhoods all across the country, not just in ours. It’s only right that people want to be able to live without fear of becoming subjected to crime or acts of ASB.

“I want to build confidence in policing and working with partners and the community. I am looking forward to building those important relationships and to drive down crime by bringing offenders to justice as well as carrying out intervention work to prevent future offending.

“There have been some reported issues regarding anti-social behaviour in our area and I am pleased with the fantastic job the team did in greatly reducing these incidents. It is important to ensure the correct provisions are in place to divert people, particularly youths, away from a life of crime.

“Another of my priorities is tackling the drug and alcohol-related problems within our ward areas. I am a huge believer in the broken-window theory, which states that visible signs of crime and ASB encourages further incidents.

“I have seen examples of this in some areas in the short time I have been here and I want to make this a priority, working with partners and residents to effectively improve areas by designing out crime and create ownership within the community to better the lives of locals.”

‘Designing out crime’ is a principle aimed at reducing crime and the fear of crime at the design stage, to improve the security of locations and provide safer spaces in neighbourhoods. It is a method that has seen remarkably positive results in other areas of our region.

This kind of problem-solving approach requires input from all parts of the community, including our partners and residents.

“I am looking forward to understanding the concerns of the community and working on methods to address and reduce those issues.”

Away from work, Insp Lonsdale has two other passions. “I was a keen rugby player – but my knees won’t let me continue. I do still enjoy watching it and thinking ‘that could have been me’! I do have a very energetic five-year-old boy who is growing up far too fast, and he keeps me in decent shape.”

You can call our non-emergency number 101 to report an issue, but always call 999 in an emergency or to report a crime in progress.

There are many other ways to keep in touch with your Neighbourhood Policing Team. You can drop in to a police station and ask to talk to one of the neighbourhood team, or sign up to a local Independent Advisory Group to have your say on policing in the area.

“I would encourage everyone to sign up to My Community Alert. This allows us to directly send information to you about issues in your area and what we are doing about them.

“We will also be out and about conducting Humber Talking. This gives people the chance to meet their local officers and tell them about the problems they face. It allows us to then target those issues.

“My message to all communities in west Hull is to tell us what is going on, raise those concerns you have. While we are aware of many of the issues you might have and are acting on those, if we don’t have information about others it is difficult for us to respond adequately.

“I would really recommend our communities share their concerns with us and allow us to work with you and others to tackle those issues.”

To find out more about the local issues facing your area and to keep in touch with your local team, head over to our local website.

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