Your PCC Newsletter for August

Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner

Your PCC Newsletter for August

News from your Commissioner Jonathan Ash-Edwards

August newsletter from the Police and Crime Commissioner for Hertfordshire

Dear Resident,

Welcome to my newsletter for August 2025 – in this edition:

Safer Town Centres – August highlights

Police encourage victims and witnesses to use Kulpa app to share digital evidence

Knife Angel to visit Hertfordshire in October

This month has also seen some great work by Hertfordshire’s police officers and staff to: jail a burglar who targeted properties in Kings Langley, Watford and Hemel Hempstead, proactively target cross-border criminality in the east of Herts and send some more county lines drug dealers to prison. Meanwhile, officers from Hertfordshire’s rural policing team were able to locate a foal that had been stolen from Cornwall thanks to a tip off from the public and some skilled drone piloting that helped identify her location in our county. Shetland pony Lucy is now safely back with her mother.

Safer Town Centres – August highlights

A group of people standing next to a van

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As part of our Safer Town Centres initiative this summer, a wide range of activity has been underway through August to keep Hertfordshire’s town centres safe for people to enjoy.

Police officers and PCSOs have carried out hundreds of hours of additional Operation Hotspot patrols in town centres, parks and retail spaces. Local councils and Business Improvement Districts have been playing their parts as well to problem solve and engage local communities and businesses.

Arrests have been made (including one by the Chief Constable personally while on patrol in East Herts), anti-social behaviour powers have been used, stop searches have been carried out and preventive work undertaken in the night-time economy.

Here are some of the highlights from this month:

North Hertfordshire District Council has recognised licensed premises in Hitchin who have signed up to the district’s Women’s Safety Charter. It’s an initiative that I’ve supported with grant funding that trains staff in licensed premises to recognise signs that a woman might be in danger, use anti-spiking kits and participate in initiatives like ‘Ask for Angela’.

Police horses went out on patrol in Cassiobury Park in Watford earlier this month (and are out again this Saturday, 30th) to supplement the additional Operation Hotspot patrols being carried out to keep the park safe. I was able to provide some grant funding to allow the horses to come over from Thames Valley, who were well-received in the park with lots of children able to meet Police Horse Dave and Police Horse Harper.

Prolific shoplifters in Borehamwood have been robustly dealt with. One already serving a suspended sentence has been jailed for 18 weeks. Another has been given a Criminal Behaviour Order banning them from entering the town for two years.

In Stevenage, I joined local officers on patrol in the town centres to see the work they are doing and met with a number of retailers to discuss activity to tackle retail crime. I also met with one of the local Sergeants and Borough Council representatives to discuss an initiative to improve feelings of safety between the Old Town area and the railway station, especially in the evenings.

The Roads Policing Unit has been carrying out a proactive operation tackling dangerous and illegal e-scooter use as well as carrying out spot checks on taxis operating in town centres to ensure they are compliant with their licences.

Keeping people who enjoy our town centres for nights out safe is crucially important, and lots of work is underway to do just that. As part of Operation Vigilant, officers in towns across the county are regularly deployed in plain clothes to watch for predatory behaviours, protect prospective victims from crimes such as spiking and harassment, and stop them developing into worse. I recently joined officers on one of these operations to see this vital work first hand.

Finally, I was pleased to welcome the Policing Minister, Dame Diana Johnson MP, to Bishop’s Stortford to see the Safer Town Centres work we are doing in Hertfordshire. The Chief Constable and I had a wide-ranging discussion with the Minister about local policing and crime issues as well as national policy. The Minister was given a tour of the town by the local Neighbourhood Policing Inspector, allowing her to meet key partners in the town centre and see some local successes.

Police encourage victims and witnesses to use Kulpa app to share digital evidence

A new app is being used in Hertfordshire to help victims of crimes like domestic abuse, stalking and harassment to store digital evidence like photos, videos and WhatsApp messages in a secure cloud that can be shared with officers.

Traditionally, victims of crimes which require a pattern of repeated behaviour have been asked to keep a diary. Now, digital evidence can be logged to support a prosecution through the Kulpa app.

The app will increase the police’s ability to secure the evidence required for positive action to be taken against offenders. In one case, a victim used Kulpa to share evidence of seven separate stalking and harassment incidents, including videos, photographs, CCTV footage and messages. With such consistent, verified evidence, shared via Kulpa, Hertfordshire Constabulary was able to arrest and charge the offender.

Importantly, the Kulpa app puts victims in charge of sharing evidence, allowing them to store evidence of long term problems and only share it with police when they are comfortable doing so.

This is a brilliant innovation in investigatory police work, and I support it fully – the Kulpa app is available for free download from the Apple Store (iPhone/iPad), the Google Play Store (Android devices), or it can be used on a computer by going to kulpacloud.com.

Meanwhile, more information about the app and how to use it is available here: https://www.kulpacloud.com/faqs#pageStart

Kulpa doesn’t replace the normal routes to report a crime, through 101 or online. Always ring 999 if a crime is in progress, an offender is nearby or there is a threat to life or safety.

Knife Angel to visit Hertfordshire in October

A statue of a person made of knives

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The Knife Angel is a striking monument designed to raise awareness about the destructive effects of knife-related crime, and it’s stopping in our county for the month of October. It’s the first time the Knife Angel has visited Hertfordshire.

Designed by artist Alfie Bradley at the British Ironwork Centre, and standing at a full 27-feet tall, it was created from over 100,000 blades seized by police forces across the UK.

Over the month of October, Welwyn Garden City town centre will host the Knife Angel. Its arrival will kick off a month-long programme of intensive anti-violence youth engagement work across the county, aimed at fostering positive and constructive change within our communities – including a knife amnesty, police enforcement activity and educational and prevention work with young people.

Knife crime is lower in Hertfordshire than many other parts of the country but we must not be complacent as every life lost or damaged by knives is one too many. The arrival of the Knife Angel in Hertfordshire is a powerful symbol of our shared commitments to prevent and reduce violence as well as educating young people. I will continue to work with the police, schools, families and partner agencies to keep our streets and young people safe.

That’s all for now - make sure you follow me on Facebook here to keep up to date with everything else I’m doing to make Hertfordshire as safe as it can be.

Best wishes,

Jonathan

Jonathan Ash-Edwards

Police and Crime Commissioner for Hertfordshire

P.S. You can contact me at any time if there’s something you’d like to raise with me as your Police & Crime Commissioner – get in touch any time on commissioner@herts-pcc.gov.uk.

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