48 drugs arrests made in Northampton over six month period as neighbourhood police team tackles three priorities

Between April 1 and September 30, the three local priorities set for the areas covered by the Northampton Neighbourhood Policing Team were burglary, drug dealing and misuse, and road safety and traffic issues.

In the last six months, the policing team has worked in partnership with the local authority, parish and town councils, housing agencies and other partners. They have now recorded results for all three of the priorities:

Burglary

• Kieron Stuart Robert Long, aged 39 and previously of Balfour Close, was jailed in September for four years and six months for a series of burglaries in Northampton and Milton Keynes (including several offences in the Hardingstone area) between January and February 2024. He committed multiple offences, including eight burglaries, three attempted burglaries, two vehicle thefts, and one theft from a vehicle.
• Crime prevention advice has been issued on the Northamptonshire Talking messaging system.
• Officers have conducted high visibility patrols in hot spot areas.
• PCSOs attended the Grangewood Residents Group in East Hunsbury to speak with residents and deliver a presentation on home safety and burglary prevention.
• “Street a week” initiative, which involves going door to door and engaging with residents of a different street each week. This enables them to share crime prevention advice, raise awareness of any local issues and get feedback about crime and anti-social behaviour concerns in the area.
• Officers have visited various locations with the neighbourhood beat bus to hold community surgeries, where the discuss crime prevention and home security, and speak with local people about any concerns they may have about crime in their area.
• Burglary crime prevention and vehicle crime packs have been issued to Eastfield residents, with around 2,000 SmartWater property marking kits issued.

Drug dealing and misuse

• Eighteen offences for trafficking controlled drugs have been recorded in the Northampton South West area during the April to September priority period. This resulted in 10 arrests and one suspect being charged, with other investigations ongoing.
• 66 offences of possession of controlled drugs have been recorded over last priority period. This resulted in 48 arrests (25 for possession of class A & 23 for possession of class B). Charges were brought against 27 suspects (15 for possession of class A & 12 for possession of class B) and five conditional cautions and 16 community resolutions were also issued.
• Multiple warrants were conducted by officers in the Bouverie area.
• Misuse of drugs act warrants have also been completed across the area, with various positive outcomes.
• Misuse of drugs act warrants executed across the north and east of the town, including Kingsthorpe and areas of the eastern district, resulting in a number of arrests, seizures of drugs and dismantling of cannabis factories.
• Officers in the eastern areas of the town have also carried out plain-clothes hot spot patrols once a month, completing 56 stop searches in the last three months.
• The team supported a Crimestoppers event in Blackthorn which aimed to encourage to people to feel confident in reporting information about crime, and those committing it, to either the police or anonymously to independent charity Crimestoppers.
• Officers also carried out regular welfare visits to those at risk of being cuckooing.

Road safety

• Speed enforcement activity was completed by neighbourhood officers in Briar Hill and Duston, resulted in 27 drivers reported for speeding, 13 drivers stopped and given words of advice, and one vehicle seized due to the driver having no insurance.
• Speed enforcement operations were carried out in Kingsthorpe and areas on the Eastern district, and resulted in several tickets being issued, words of advice given and a number of vehicles seized
• Following concerns raised on the Brackmills industrial estate about cyclists riding without lights, funding was sought through the Brackmills BID (Business Improvement District) and over the last six months, 60 sets of bike lights have been distributed to support road safety across the industrial estate.
• Officers have focused on tackling the use of private e-scooters where people are offending by committing other crime, such as theft or drug dealing. This has resulted in a number of seizures of such e-scooters.
• Operations have been running throughout areas and a Public Spaces Protection Order 2024 (PSPO) notice has been placed on all boundaries of the area, key entry and hot spot areas. This allows police officers, PCSOs and West Northants Council operatives to issue fixed penalty notices to those who continue to ride a bike or scooter after being directed not to do so by the authorised person.
• A Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) is an order made under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. PSPOs can be used to control certain activities in a specified area if certain conditions are met.
• PCSOs have been delivering talks to school pupils, sharing information and advice about how to stay safe on the roads, as well as personal safety advice.
• A number of motorcycle trained neighbourhood officers on off-road bikes, supporting Operation Wave, our initiative to tackle the anti-social use of vehicles. As a result, multiple illegal off-road bikes seized.

Over the next six months, from October 2025 to March 2026, the Northampton Neighbourhood Policing Team will continue to focus on these three areas. According to Northamptonshire Police, these priorities are based on local crime figures, discussion with local authority and other partners, and feedback from the community through a regular local priorities survey. The survey can be found here.