Oi – you lot! Over here! Image from the BBC.

I had a rather sad message in the last few days from a very concerned person who works in Brownhills – their shop has been burgled for the second time in a fortnight, and like many shopkeepers and businesses in the area, the current burglary spree is really hitting them hard.

They wrote:

Hi

I work in a Charity Shop in Brownhills, we got broken into again last night, for the second time in two weeks, the perpertrators were caught on nearby CCTV and the police are pretty sure of who the person is doing the crime, but due to a lack of staff to get the hard evidence, at the moment nothing can be done.

Ii think the criminals know this, due to the fact they are revisiting places they have burgaled after a very short period of time, and also in our case the amount of time they are spending on a premises they are attempting to burgle. They spent almost an hour in our shop last night, which in my opinion is just totally brazen, they know they aren’t going to be caught.

It seems the current crime wave in Brownhills isn’t stopping  -over the last month or so, we have been burgaled twice, the card shop by Downes’s has been burgaled twice, Acorns has been done, the opticians by the post office has been done, specsavers has been done and the dentists has been done.

Eventually the retail outlets that are there will simply just go.

Thought I would inform you of this as you should know of this escalating crime spree in our town.

Concerned.

This also comes against a background where, at the other end of our area in Walsall Wood, a small gang of what appear to be the same youths are causing serious hassle, seemingly unchallenged by West Midlands Police finest.

From reports I’m receiving anecdotally, from stuff I’m being told and conversations I’m having, two young men stole a moped, and were brazenly riding it around for days. A wheelchair has been stolen and smashed. There have been vandalism and harassment incidents at the new Oak Park and Streets Corner. There is frequent intimidation of people in their homes and as they walk the streets.

The same names are repeated over and over again.

Nothing is done.

Absolute morons stole an amputee’s wheelchair, and smashed it up – thankfully, the local community helped the victim. But the crime wave continues.

Like Brownhills, people in the Wood are sick to the back teeth of the trouble, yet the police seem to shrug and say there’s nothing they can do. Whilst I understand the problems caused by cuts, going after the perpetrators of a recent wave of theft and antisocial behaviour would seem to be expedient, and do much to restore faith in a beleaguered force.

The more the small but active criminal element get away with, the bolder they will get, and we’ll all suffer.

Local kids who are perfectly innocent are being treated with suspicion and hassled purely because a tiny number of their peers are behaving appallingly.

At a time when the Police need community co-operation more than ever, they are alienating us.

This simply isn’t good enough.

Can I suggest readers suffering crime or ASB report every incident to 101, no matter how small, and that you contact your local councillors and MP with your concerns. It might also be worth contacting the Police and Crime Commissioner about this, too.

You can contact Brownhills councillors at this link here.
You can contact Walsall Wood Councillors here.
You can contact Wendy Morton, our MP, here.
You can contact David Jamieson, West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner here.

The Brownhills Policing Team can be contacted here.
The Walsall Wood Policing Team can be contacted here.

I’ve lived in Brownhills for many years – all of my life, in fact, and it’s always been a relatively quiet, crime-free area. Lately there has been a real rise in reports of burglary, theft and bad behaviour. It’s about time the police, instead of shrugging and making excuses, went out and felt some collars.