03 Oct 2025
There’s a new face in the fight against anti-social behaviour (ASB), shoplifting, drug use and speeding in the city.
Sergeant James Keene now heads up the St Albans Central, North and West Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT), consisting of PCs and PCSOs who work on solving short and long-term issues affecting the area.
Having started his career in St Albans as a constable back in 2016, James spent a period working in the custody department at Stevenage shortly before returning to the city: “I learned a lot there about a world that I wasn’t too familiar with, but the intention was always to come back to where it all began.”
We caught up with him for a walk around the city centre to discuss his priorities in the role, and the way he will be approaching policing them.
Although some elements have changed in the decade since he first worked here, James said ultimately St Albans remains a safe place to live and visit.
“The night-time economy has changed slightly post-pandemic, although it’s still a busy place on Friday and Saturday nights.”
Market days also present their own challenges, as he explained while we weaved between shoppers and stalls on a Wednesday morning: “I wouldn’t say the crime necessarily goes up, but the footfall is a lot higher, so it’s all about making sure officers are visible and people feel safe.
“One of the reasons I’m quite passionate about working in the city is that it isn’t just a place to live, it’s a place to visit, and it’s important to keep the visitors in mind.”
Operation Hotspot, which sees high-visibility officers on patrol in the city centre, is continuing for the foreseeable future, he confirmed.
“We’ve got dedicated officers every day who purely patrol the city centre, being visible and posing as a deterrent, but we’ll also mix this up with some plain clothes operations as well, because sometimes you have to change your tactics to get results.”
He is also responding to the current policing priorities for St Albans after local residents highlighted the issues causing them the most concern.
These include tackling anti-social motorbikes, e-bikes and e-scooters on the New Greens Estate, by St Albans City Hospital and on the Oysterfields estate.
“I’m in the process of speaking to some other departments to try to set up some operations moving forward, because it’s not just a nuisance. It’s dangerous. These electric bikes and scooters move quite high speeds and someone’s going to get hurt. My stance is going to be robust when we do catch up with these people. I will be taking their vehicle and they will be prosecuted for any offences that we identify.”
Officers’ other priorities include cracking down on drug dealing and use on the Alban Way between Orient Close and Morrisons.
“We’ve listened to what the public wants, and one priority which cropped up was the issues on the Alban Way. Patrolling there relies on officers on foot or pedal bikes, and we’re going back to some good old-fashioned high-vis policing, but also some plainclothes work, and hopefully we’ll see some results.
“We do seem to have some repeat offenders, but we work closely with our partner agencies in probation and housing, and sometimes it’s about getting these people a bit of stability in their lives, taking them away from that temptation, or if there’s an element of their life that needs changing and improving.
“That’s something I learned working with repeat offenders in custody, where you have an opportunity to just slow things down in an environment where it’s just you and them.
“I’m going to try and bring that concept in here, and actually build a bit of a rapport with the people who are causing us problems, and get those referrals in for some sort of support to prevent them reoffending.”
As always, the police rely on members of the public telling them about issues of concern – rather than just posting on social media – so they can actually do something about it, but this involves building relationships of mutual trust.
The Government’s new Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee aims to increase public confidence in policing and enhance the capability and capacity of the neighbourhood policing workforce to address anti-social behaviour and focus on crime prevention.
NPTs will spend the majority of their time in communities, providing visible patrols, engaging with residents and businesses, and offering regular opportunities for the public to raise concerns through beat meetings.
Every force also now has a dedicated ASB lead to work directly with communities to develop action plans that tackle the concerns seen on their streets every day.
“Policing is always going through changes – we’ve got a new Chief Constable who has been keen to make some changes very quickly – but this is coming from Government level.
“It’s that traditional, old-fashioned approach to neighbourhood policing, but improving it and adding resources.
“So each ward within the district has an assigned officer and PCSO who they can communicate with directly, and my role as the team sergeant is to ensure that every day part of their shift is spent in their ward.
“It’s really important for them to spend a bit of time being visible and engaging with members of the community, and I operate on a similar model myself.
“My reward for getting all my admin done is to go for a walk around town or drive to one of the neighbourhoods and see what’s going on, have a look around, speak to people.
“We don’t know what’s going on if people aren’t talking to us. So it’s just important to have that rapport with your community so that they can feel comfortable and confident telling us what’s going on.”
He is also working closely with St Albans City Centre BID, with a formalised agreement to share crime prevention information and data using the Disc app.
This includes photo galleries of known offenders alongside instant messages and alerts on recent incidents, keeping shop and hospitality staff up-to-date on developments which might impact on them.
“I’m sharing our top targets for shoplifting and ASB, which gets the message out to local businesses as to who they need to look out for, and then they can feed back to use if they become a victim of that person’s behaviour or offending.
“I met with the BID in my first week on the job, and we’re now more than a partnership, we’ve become a mini-team, and their input is helping me bridge the gap between local businesses and my team.
“The other partnership is with CCTV operators, who have direct communication with us on the ground and with security guards, door staff and licensed officers. It’s good quality CCTV, the guys operating it are very reliable and we’ve very lucky in St Albans to have that facility.”
