Peterlee police chief’s parting message to ‘passionate’ community

Inspector Dave Coxon, of Peterlee Neighbourhood Policing Team, leaves his role this week for a similar job in Durham City.

He was posted to Peterlee temporarily in 2011 as neighbourhood inspector and was delighted to accept the permanent role soon after.

The dad-of-four said: “I set out to achieve a greater emphasis on understanding issues affecting communities, listening to the problems being experienced and to make sure that the team at Peterlee responded to those challenges. We have developed and strengthened our links with communities, keeping our commitment to working together through PACT (Police and Communities Together) and more than doubled the number of active Neighbourhood Watch schemes to 260 covering 7,516 households.

“This has been instrumental in increasing the information we have about what’s going on and who’s causing issues in the area, assisting with the successes we’ve seen in tackling a whole range of concerns from organised criminality to anti-social behaviour to volume crime.”

Insp Coxon added: “During my time here I’ve met some great people, who are committed to improving the area they live in. I’ve witnessed first-hand the amount of energy that they’ve devoted to their communities and have been really pleased to see them recognised nationally at a number of different awards.

“I’m sure that the team will continue to build on the number of volunteers prepared to actively contribute and encourage communities to work with each other to tackle issues affecting them.”

He said he is sorry to leave as there are some “fantastic, passionate people both on the team and within the community that I will miss, but I know that they will carry on working tirelessly to improve the quality of life” for people in the area.