Police hail 'significant reductions' in recorded crime in Sunniside area of Sunderland city centre after concerns raised

The Sunniside area encompasses a key part of Sunderland city centre and was recently the focus of a scrutiny investigation led by city councillors.

The final report, which looked at Sunniside’s past development, current issues and future regeneration, noted the area faced an “ongoing problem with anti-social behaviour, crime and fear of crime”.

At a council meeting this week police said recent figures showed crime was on the decline in the city centre, including Sunniside, which was the result of “proactive” work and increased resources.

This included the work of the two police officers linked to the Sunderland Altogether Improving Lives (SAIL) project at High Street West, with a new officer also due to hit the streets next week.

“The Sunniside area is a key part of the city centre and that’s a key part of what I report on,” said inspector Jamie Southwell, of Northumbria Police.

“At the moment it’s showing significant reductions on previous years because of the fact that we now have a daily presence there.

“I never used to have that with the city centre team but now that I have got the SAIL team plus a new officer who is arriving next week, I have got much greater day-to-day coverage supported by the likes of the neighbourhood wardens.

“Within the SAIL team we now also have a drugs and alcohol specialist who has joined us from Change Grow, Live […] he’s also out there linking in with some of the people who may have previously caused the issues in Sunniside.

“So at the moment the incident levels are way down”.

The comments were made at a meeting of the East Sunderland Area Committee on Monday, June 26, at City Hall during a general police update.

Crime figures presented to councillors covered the period since the inception of the city centre SAIL team in November, 2022, up until late-June, 2023, and showed percentage decreases across the board.

This included drops in several types of anti-social behaviour, including a 73% drop in ‘rowdy and inconsiderate behaviour’ and 48% reductions in alcohol-related anti-social behaviour and street drinking.

Other decreases included youth anti-social behaviour, which saw a 40% drop, as well as a 9% reduction in violent crime with injury, a 26% drop in public disorder offences, a 56% drop in burglaries and decreases in car crime and criminal damage.

The figures covered the area defined as the ‘city centre’ by the police, including several council wards and Sunniside, with other data also showing crime reductions across the whole East Sunderland Area Committee patch.

Insp Southwell said that the SAIL team’s “intensive work” with a group of youths previously responsible for violent crime was having a positive impact.

Looking forward, the police inspector also welcomed a planned uplift in staff with additional police officers deployed across several teams, as well as plans to retain police community support officers.

Insp Southwell added: “We are very much going back on the front foot, it’s very proactive what we’re doing at the moment as you can see by the figures.

“My teams are always very proactive, they like to get out there in plain clothes, they like to change their shifts and do night shifts.

“In the city centre the SAIL police officers, of which we have two, they have issued 44% of all dispersal notices in the entire force area.

“So that’s two against about 4,000 cops and they have issued almost half of the dispersals and between the two of them, they have now arrested almost 100 individuals since they were put in place, which is just phenomenal.

“They are going to be joined by somebody else on Monday who I have managed to hand pick, they have got a really good colleague who will be joining them on the SAIL team.

“We will also be getting somebody else on that team as well sooner rather than later so that we continue the good work”.