15 Aug 2026
It’s now 12 months since Sgt James Keene took over St Albans Central, North and West Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT), and he’s now settled into the role, which involves overseeing the PCs and PCSOs tackling short and long-term issues affecting the area.
“I’ve really got my head around all the team’s skills and abilities, and also the district itself.
“We’ve also gone through many changes in St Albans, our new chief inspector came in from the Met six months ago and he quite rightly wants us to focus on proactivity as well as reactivity.
“So while we’re still going to investigate the crimes that are being reported, we’re also going out and being a presence locally as much as possible. There’s a big push in making sure officers are using their powers to make arrests, carry out stop-searches and warrants and so on, but also to make the public aware of when we are getting good results through social media, which is something we weren’t always very good at.”
Recent successes include a closure order at an address in Abbots Avenue West for ongoing drug-related activity and anti-social behaviour, two people being charged in connection with multiple shoplifting offences in the city centre, and a day of action in partnership with Herts police’s Operational Support Group which saw 43 cannabis plants seized from a property in Camp Road.
Shoplifting in St Albans remains a consistent target: “I don’t know if it’s the geographic location, if it’s certain people, but we work hard at investigating and preventing it, including still putting extra patrols out in town, which means our PCSOs are out there being our eyes and ears.”
This has had a positive impact on the problem of street drinking in the city centre. Although the majority of those people responsible have a genuine problem with alcohol abuse, James recognises that they can often be intimidating to other members of the public, so efforts are made to move them on.
“I think we’re in a lot better place than we have been in the past. I’m currently working really closely with the council at the moment as the responsible drinking zone in the city centre is up for renewal in the autumn.
“I’m monitoring its enforcement and making sure we’ve go the data to prove we use it, because it’s a great tool to tackle excessive street drinking and the sort of ASB that comes with it.”
Outside the immediate city centre there’s an inauspicious bus shelter in Victoria Street which is colloquially known as ‘The Bus Stop Arms’ among the city’s police force because of its tendency to be used by all-day street drinkers.
“We’ve done some work relating to The Bus Stop Arms, including speaking to licensing at the council to make sure there’s some signage down there explaining it’s still within the responsible drinking zone, and spoken to local councillors and businesses to explain that we want to get this particular ‘pub’ shut down. I encourage all other pubs to flourish, but not The Bus Stop Arms!”
The neighbourhood teams have also been doing a lot of work down the Alban Way, and after their patrols uncovered a makeshift hangout made of old furniture and tyres in the vicinity of Fleetville Junior School which was being used for drinking and drug use, it was cleared away by offenders doing community service.
“It was just a spontaneous one-off thing, but I thought, if you don’t ask you don’t get, and it paid off, so we’re going to be working with our colleagues in probation a lot more moving forwards.”
Without wishing to tempt fate, this could be the first summer in many years which hasn’t seen a prevalence of off-road bikes and electric scooters tearing through the streets, another issue which has been targeted by James’ team as part of their policing priorities.
Every four months, using surveys from the police’s Herts Connected platform, he will determine what particular issues to focus on for that period, and e-scooters and bikes scored highly in the recent session.
“Summer could have seen an increase in these, but I’d like to think we are starting to get a grip on it. We’ve run a couple of operations in the city centre and down towards the train station, as there’s a tendency to see these bikes more in those areas, and I think the message is starting to get through.
“They’re not regulated enough, people don’t know how to use them safely, and we’ve had instances where people have got hurt. The message is now clear from all the way up at the Home Office that it’s enforcement over education now. The education phase is done and dusted, people know they’re illegal, they know they’re dangerous, and it’s time to move to enforcement with seizures when the opportunity arises.”
The second policing priority will be something James chooses based on data he has received from his team, and this summer it is aimed at anti-social behaviour in the Sopwell area.
“Historically in the school holidays, the retail park and McDonald’s would be a hot spot for anti-social behaviour, as is the Cottonmill Community and Cycling Centre, which I think is just a fantastic facility but I know they do get issues down there.”
Earlier in the year, during the Easter holidays, police imposed a dispersal order at the retail park on a particularly hot day to tackle problems with large groups of youths congregating and possibly causing ASB.
“It was school holidays and warm weather, so we wondered if it could be an indicator of what to expect in the summer. So we’ve done a lot of work with businesses down there, including having McDonald’s sign up to the local ShopSafe radios we use in town, which provide direct communication with the CCTV control room, with ourselves and with other businesses, and that appears to be working.
“We’ve also done a lot of work with the management down at the community centre just trying to identify who are causing the problems. We’ve got a really good rapport with Shelley [Hayles] from LeeAnna’s Wish [the community interest group which holds various activities there] and Everyone Active, who have responsibility for the centre. So far so good, a couple of little things have bubbled away, but there have been no major problems as frequently as there were last summer.
James and his team also took part in the recent Cottonmill Gathering, the free family-focused community event organised entirely by volunteers from the Sopwell Residents Association.
“It was a really, really nice day, we had so much engagement and everyone was just really pleased to see us. The kids loved sitting in the cell van and trying on the kit and police hats.”
Sometimes he has to take a cautionary approach to issues based on intelligence received, even if they are unsure whether it has any merit.
Back in March, this included rumours that St Albans was caught up in the Red vs Blue inter-schools fights being circulated on social media.
These saw schools divided into “Red” and “Blue” sides, and pupils from Years 7 to 11 encouraged to fight rivals at a determined location, possibly using bladed weapons.
Posts on Facebook were encouraging young people from different secondary schools to meet outside the Morrisons store in Fleetville, which of course came to James’ attention.
But even though it came to nothing, and proved to be little more than a scam, it was still a matter of assessing the risks.
“There was an unknown risk there, and I had to take resources away from their day-to-day duties to be at places where the information was coming in that something might happen. It started off at the schools, then it was the parks, and then supermarket car parks.
“We all had an inkling that it was just some social media craze, but you can’t take that chance, and I’d rather err on the side of caution to keep people safe, especially as it had spread like wildlife throughout the country.
“But we lost a couple of days from our usual activities as a result. It wasn’t just about the patrols and sitting up outside the schools and the parks, there was a lot of work behind the scenes engaging with headteachers and parents and making sure we were putting the right message out there of it. I’m just glad it was all hype and no-one got hurt.”
Another of the Neighbourhood Policing Team’s successes has been dealing with suspicious activity in St Peter’s churchyard following intelligence provided by members of the public.
“Our officers went in and detained a few people, and it turned out one was wanted locally for the theft of a pedal cycle and he also had some drugs on him, so it was a good result as he was charged and remanded.
“This is a prime example of how we need information about what’s going on. If a crime is in progress then call 999, otherwise we encourage people to report online to keep our phone lines clear. But this was an example of how the public are our eyes and ears, ad we only knew the churchyard was becoming a crime hotspot again because people told us, and that meant we were able to act on it immediately and get a good result.”
The next few months will see a structural change within the Neighbourhood Policing Team, meaning a bigger resource for St Albans Central, North and West, something James is keen to highlight.
“Not only will we be able to manage day-to-day business within the community, but I should have the resources to put out proactive officers, which will be a bit of a game changer in terms of targeted operations, so criminals should watch out!”
