One of our parish councillors recently attended a police information-giving evening, which highlighted a trend where drug dealing is being moved out of large cities and towns to rural villages and smaller areas. Alarmingly there is also increased evidence that children are being used in drug running.

The strong message coming from the officers was that in order to stop this, they need intelligence from the public. People are urged to use the 101 service to report crimes and remember that as well as the 101 telephone service there is 101 online available from the Bedfordshire Police website.

You can give any information you have about any criminal or suspicious activity. Information you provide will be reviewed and could help to stop a crime or convict an offender.

Some examples of issues we should all be  reporting are:

Anti-social behaviour

Dwelling burglary

Child abuse/exploitation

Domestic abuse

Serious sexual offences

Extremism and counter terrorism

Modern day slavery

Firearms

Drug usage or distribution

Because members of the public are often reluctant to provide information for fear of reprisals, officers can now go to court on behalf of residents and say that they were given intelligence that they acted on – keeping the informer anonymous. Councillors and the parish clerk are also able to  contact the police on your behalf if you feel uncomfortable doing it yourself.