Dear Resident,

I hope you’ve had a lovely weekend. For those new to the series, every Monday at 4pm, we’ll be sending out a message to residents across the St Albans district with a focus on a different topic each week. My goal is to get people talking about different community issues and to provide insights on the types of incidents Herts Police tackle daily, all with the intention of breaking down barriers between the Police and the public. You can always tell us what you think about a message by clicking the Rate button (thumbs up/down) at the bottom of this message. Alternatively, you can share your thoughts, questions, or stories with us directly by clicking the Reply button. 

With that in mind, this week I wanted to discuss the “Going Equipped” offence. A huge part of our day-to-day is responding to, and preventing, acquisitive crime, ie. Shoplifting, theft from/of motor vehicles, burglaries. Defined in Section 25 of the Theft Act 1968, Going Equipped is a criminal offence which is committed if a person is carrying an item with the intent to use it for theft. 

This bit of legislation was introduced so that those who are found to be carrying items such as crowbars, bolt cutters, screwdrivers, lock picks, or keyless entry hacking devices can be prosecuted, even if they haven’t stolen anything yet! 

If you regularly carry tools for a legitimate purpose, this of course is not an offence. What defines the offence is that an individual is carrying a tool for the purpose of carrying out another offence within the Theft Act. As a tradesperson, please keep your tools in a box with a business card handy so its legitimate use is easily identifiable. 

So, what does this mean for you? 

We want to prevent acquisitive offences before they happen so it’s important that you report any suspicious incidents to the Police. For example, you see someone peering into vehicles, casing a residential address, walking into a shop with a foil-lined bag, or concealing a tool in their jacket. If the Police know about these suspicious incidents, we can use our Stop and Search powers to confirm or allay a Going Equipped offence. There have been many occasions of vehicle interferences or theft from vehicles which have been reported to us but during investigations, neighbouring residents tell us “this happens all the time”. If it isn’t reported to the Police, we have no way of identifying perpetrators and it is likely their course of conduct will continue. 

If you have any questions about suspicious incidents such as how to report it or what action the Police take when an incident is reported, please feel free to reply to this message and an officer from our Neighbourhood Policing Team will be in touch with you as soon as possible. 

Have a lovely week! Next week, we’ll be discussing Hate Crime. 

Kind Regards, 

Fiona.