Christmas and New Year are a time for family, friends and celebrating but while many of us were letting our hair down, and tucking into our Christmas turkey, officers and staff from Cheshire Constabulary were working to protect communities from harm.
Assistant Chief Constable Mark Roberts said, "Officers and staff have worked extremely hard over the festive period, reinforcing our commitment that we're here for you, when and where you need us. Over the festive period we've been issuing crime prevention advice, personal safety advice, cracked down on wanted offenders and provided extra patrols to deal with incidents that have arisen across the county."
Between Sunday 20th December 2015 and Saturday 2nd January 2016 the Force Control Centre received 3,797 emergency calls – of which 95.7% were answered within 10 seconds.
294 of the calls were received on Christmas day, while 356 were received on the busiest night of the year, New Year's Eve. The calls related to a variety of incidents across the county, including road traffic collisions, anti-social behaviour and burglary to name a few.
Assistant Chief Constable Mark Roberts added, "The Blue Christmas campaign, which ran from November to the beginning of January, focussed on 12 key topics. One of which included home safety, and not 'gifting' items to thieves this Christmas. We have seen a decrease in the number of burglary incidents that were reported to us over the festive period which is pleasing to see."
Blue Christmas also saw the force taking offenders off our streets. Over the two weeks, Cheshire Police arrested 830 people across the county. 54 of these were treated to a very special dinner on December 25. 154 people started 2016 looking at the back of a custody cell door.
Assistant Chief Constable Mark Roberts said, "Here in Cheshire we've bucked the national trend with regards to arrests. The national trend has shown a decrease, whereas our proactive policing approach has seen an increase in our arrest figures.
"I'm very impressed with the policing response and want to thank officers and staff for their hard work and commitment to the people of Cheshire. I also want to thank the public, for their continued efforts, by heeding safety advice and enabling us to help you when and where required."
