Inspector Jon Smith

I’m Jon Smith – one of your Local Policing Inspectors in St Helens. This is my first-time putting pen to paper (but hopefully not the last) as the inspector responsible for where you live. It’s Neighbourhood Policing week – which is where you, hopefully, get to know some of your local bobbies a bit better.  

Growing up, I planned on being the next Neville Southall and playing in goal for Everton – but that obviously didn’t happen. Thankfully I ended up with the next best thing in my eyes, which was joining the police. 

I joined Merseyside Police back in 2006.  My first posting out of training was Local Policing in Toxteth. It suited me as I enjoyed getting to know the community that I was working in - trying to make a lasting impact for local residents. That’s always what I’ve always tried to keep in mind: ‘how will this help the people who live here?’, as I’ve progressed from constable, to sergeant, to inspector, working across five different community areas.  

Now, my beat is St Helens. I’ve been settled here for two years. 

Don’t let my saying ‘settled’ fool you, though. I take each 24-hour period as it comes, because every shift is unique.  I start each one by reviewing the past 24 hours of incidents and crimes that have taken place across St Helens – try to pick out any crime patterns, identify any vulnerable residents or victims that need some additional help or support, and offenders that need to be arrested. 

That reviewing is important to me. It’s how I make sure my team are deployed to where they need to be and that we’re using the right tactics; foot patrol, high visibility policing, plain clothes deployments, bike patrol, quad bike patrol etc. 

I’ve come to learn over the last couple of years that St Helens residents want, deserve, and rightly demand the very best for their community. I count myself as lucky, because although the ward areas across St Helens vary in terms of challenges (mostly due to factors like social deprivation and employment, but also down to being urban or rural) St Helens residents are always so motivated to make their area thrive.  We talk to normal people every day who are totally committed to working with us to tackle problems like antisocial behaviour that can really drag an area down.  

Over the past twelve months the St Helens local policing team closed three premises where nuisance behaviour was taking place, obtained five Criminal Behaviour Orders against prolific offenders, executed countless warrants at addresses linked to organised crime.  It’s not all about shutting things down and locking people up though, we work with other agencies on initiatives like food banks, summer holiday diversion programmes. We helped to get funding for over a hundred community groups. I’m proud of that. 

My personal plea is for residents to be vigilant and take steps to secure their belongings as best as best they can. Don’t leave valuables on display where it can be avoided and practically speaking, make sure that you don’t leave your vehicles and properties unlocked. You can take very simple steps to make opportunistic crime more difficult and reduce the likelihood of becoming a victim! It’s heart breaking when someone comes to us having lost something precious – maybe with sentimental value – maybe they saved up for it – and it’s just gone in the blink of an eye. Always better safe than sorry.  

My team all work exceptionally hard to make St Helens safe, but we’re mindful that we can’t do it without the support of the community.  Fortunately, that support is something we get a lot of here in St Helens. So with that in mind, from me personally, a massive thank you for the community’s continued support!