Impact
IMPACT is Cheshire Constabulary protecting your community from serious and organised crime by relentlessly disrupting criminal activity as well as safeguarding vulnerable adults and children from criminal exploitation to make it a safer place to live.
Working closely with our partners and in line with the Home Office and National Crime Agency (NCA) strategy our aim is to reduce the risks and threats from organised crime using the four main objectives:
- Prepare – reduce this criminality and prepare for when organised crime takes place
- Prevent – seek to prevent people from engaging in organised crime by stopping and identifying those at the source
- Pursue – Relentlessly pursue offenders through disruption, targeted action and prosecution
- Protect – protect communities, vulnerable people and businesses from organised crime
How You Can Help
While we are do everything in our power to protect Cheshire from serious and organised crime we also need support from the public.
Nobody knows their villages, towns and city better than you. The people who live and work there.
We need you to be our eyes and our ears by looking out for suspicious behaviour that is out of place and spotting the signs of vulnerable children and adults being exploited.
If you think you have information – no matter how small get in touch with us and together we can help to make your community a safer place.
- Increase in visitors or cars to a house or flat
- People coming and going at odd times of the day and night
- Strange smells coming from the property (illegal drugs)
- Windows covered or curtains closed all the time
- Cars pulling up to or near the house for a short period of time
- People talking on phones outside the address
- People handling large amounts of cash and owning numerous mobile phones
- Unexplained, sometimes unaffordable new things (e.g clothes, jewellery, cars etc)
- An increase in violence at the property or in the area.
County lines criminal exploitation
A county line is operated by an organised crime group who use a mobile phone, known as a ‘line’ or a ‘graft’ to extend their criminal activity business into new locations - usually from a city into rural areas. In some cases organised crime groups can target and exploit children, vulnerable adults and disabled people to deliver and deal drugs on their behalf.
Know the signs:
- A child or young person going missing from school or home and travelling to market towns or rural areas
- Self-harm or a significant change in emotional wellbeing or their behaviour
- The use of drugs and alcohol
- Having more money, new expensive clothes or accessories which they are unable to account for
- Having multiple mobiles, tablets or SIM cards and receiving an excessive amount of texts and calls
- Forming relationships and meeting with controlling or older people or groups
- Carrying weapons
- Significant decline in school results / performance
- Lone children from outside of the area
There are a number of ways to report information or a crime:
- Call Cheshire Police on 101
- Call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111
- Speak to your local officers
- Get in touch through our online form
- Always call 999 if there is a crime in action or immediate threat to life