Beat surgeries have begun at a leisure centre in Hatfield.

The Welwyn Hatfield Neighbourhood Policing Team hosted the first in a series of beat surgeries at Birchwood Leisure Centre on Saturday, April 20.

PC Andrew Dockerill and PCSO Shannon Payne hosted the surgery between 11am and 3pm.

Beat surgeries give residents the chance to meet their local police officers face-to-face to chat about any concerns and pick up crime prevention advice.

Residents had been encouraged to bring along their bicycles for free bike-marking. The offer was taken up by a number of cyclists, keen to protect their bikes from theft.

A number of other surgeries are planned throughout the rest of the year, all taking place at Birchwood Leisure Centre in Longmead.

Birchwood beat surgery dates

  • Saturday, June 1 – 11am-2pm
  • Saturday, July 13 - 11am-2pm
  • Saturday, August 24 - 11am-2pm
  • Saturday, October 5 - 11am-2pm
  • Saturday, November 16 - 11am-2pm
  • Saturday, December 28 - 11am-2pm

 

PCSO Payne said: “We’d like to thank everybody who came along to the beat surgery.

"Events like these are really important as they help us to understand where we should be focusing our efforts. The feedback you give us is invaluable.

“We know residents find these events helpful so we have planned a number of other beat surgeries throughout the year.

"We’ll have our bike-marking equipment at all of them, so if you’ve been meaning to get your bike security marked, please come along and we can sort that for you. We look forward to seeing you.”

Residents are also encouraged to join Hertfordshire Constabulary's new community messaging platform Herts Connected at hertsconnected.co.uk where you will receive free local police messages.

You can also choose to receive messages from Neighbourhood Watch, Action Fraud and the Police and Crime Commissioner if that’s what you select when you sign up.