17th November - Jack Writes: Clear, Hold, Build: Tackling crime and making our streets safer

People in Ipswich want what everyone deserves: safer streets, less crime, and stronger communities.

For too long, parts of our town have suffered from the damage caused by serious and organised crime, drug dealing and anti-social behaviour. But that tide is turning.

Ipswich is a great town with even greater potential — and over the past year we have seen real progress.

Step by step, street by street, our community is changing for the better. This hasn’t happened by chance. It is thanks to the tireless work of our police officers, supported by councils, organisations like Ipswich Central, charities, community groups and many other partners who are all playing their part.

One of the clearest signs of this progress is the Clear, Hold, Build initiative, which has been underway in the Gipping and Westgate wards since March – and with impressive results.

Clear, Hold, Build is a tactic developed by the Home Office to tackle serious and organised crime and build communities more resilient to their influence.

The Ipswich project, which comes following successful rollouts of the initiative in Newmarket and Felixstowe, is being run jointly by Suffolk Constabulary and Ipswich Borough Council, supported by other key agencies.

The tactic follows a problem solving and evidence-based approach to tackling crime, that seeks to locate, root out and keep out criminal activity and anti-social behaviour.

First, we clear out the criminal networks through targeted activity and crime disruption.

Next, we hold the area to stop criminals moving in to fill the void.

Finally, we address the causes of criminality through community-driven action to prevent it happening again and build stronger, more resilient communities for the future.

It is a model that combines tough enforcement with meaningful investment in people and places.

Clear, Hold, Build has made a good start, and the initiative is already disrupting serious crime. The results are showing. Between March and August, police made 111 arrests, charged 21 people and secured convictions totalling almost 43 years.

Officers seized vehicles and dangerous weapons, including ninja swords and crossbows, and took around £500,000 worth of cocaine off the streets.

As we move into the autumn, that effort has intensified. In September, police made 21 arrests, seized seven weapons, including knives, a machete, a baton and an imitation firearm, and took more dangerous substances off our streets in 17 drug seizures - cannabis, cocaine, MDMA, ketamine and heroin.

However, enforcement alone isn’t enough. The next phase will be just as important, giving local people the tools, confidence and opportunities to build thriving neighbourhoods for the long term. Real safety comes not only from taking criminals off the streets, but from strengthening the fabric of our communities.

Alongside Clear, Hold, Build, our government has introduced other initiatives like the Safer Streets summer blitz and Operation Spotlight, which all work towards the same goal: making Ipswich a safer, fairer and more vibrant place to live, work and visit.

Our government has also been disrupting criminality on our high streets. In recent weeks, Operation Machinize 2 targeted cash-intensive businesses suspected of involvement in illegal employment, the sale of illicit goods, money laundering and modern slavery.

Once again, the results are impressive. Over the seven-week operation, Suffolk police made 13 arrests, seized over 10,500 cigarettes, almost 1,200 illegal vapes and around 8kg of hand rolling tobacco.

Our Labour government is also backing our local police with the resources they need to do the job, with an extra £5.5million in core funding for policing in Suffolk, and 26 new community police officers joining our local force.

We’re rebuilding the foundations of community safety, restoring neighbourhood policing, investing in prevention, and tackling the root causes of crime head-on.

There is much more work to do, but the progress so far should give us real confidence that we are heading in the right direction.

The Clear, Hold, Build project shows what can be achieved when national initiatives supports the work of local agencies and organisations, so residents and businesses can feel confident about our town centre again.