New Divisional Commander Steven Mears patrolled town centres in Carmarthenshire on the last Friday night before Christmas, dubbed ‘Festive Friday’.
Like other Senior Police Officers throughout Dyfed Powys, Chief Superintendent Steven Mears joined the evening shift and accompanied officers in Carmarthen town centre, Burry Port and Llanelli.
Mr Mears said, “It was a relatively quite night in Carmarthenshire on Friday. People were out enjoying themselves and behaving responsibly. I visited Carmarthen town centre, Burry Port and Llanelli on Friday night, sprits were high and people were celebrating. Overall calls to Dyfed Powys Police were down 11% on last year.
“Traditionally there are more people out in pubs and clubs so we had extra officers on patrol through Carmarthenshire. The good news is that overall the number of incidents relating to violent crime and public disorder was lower than the same time last year.
Before being appointed as Divisional Commander in November this year Mr Mears was the Head of CID for the Force from 2005.
A former Llanelli grammar school pupil, born and brought up in the town he considers it a privilege to be responsible for Policing Carmarthenshire.
“Being from the area I have an affinity with Llanelli, as well as Carmarthenshire. Although I have worked throughout Dyfed Powys and areas of South Wales, I was delighted to be able to come back to where I started my police career.
“My challenge over the next few years is to continue to enhance the Policing service and build on the excellent work already conducted by my predecessors, in what could be challenging financial times.
“The Force has signed up to a set of promises that we have committed to deliver called the Policing Pledge. I want to make sure Carmarthenshire delivers on these promises with the resources we have available.
“I often think that people sometimes forget that we live in an area with low crime levels and we do not suffer the same problems as the more urban areas. However, when we are occasionally faced with major incidents or crime we have a professional team of experienced officers to deal with it.
“I would like to invite people to get in touch with us if they have any concerns or worries within their communities. We have dedicated neighbourhood policing teams all over Carmarthenshire who are there to deal with issues that matter to local people.”
To find out about your local neighbourhood policing team call us on 101 or visit www.dyfed-powys.police.uk
