POLICE have responded to calls for action by Southampton business chiefs to crackdown on crime in the city centre.

Bosses at Go! Southampton Business Improvement District have written to Hampshire's Police and Crime Commissioner Michael Lane asking for a greater police presence in the city centre in a bid to deter criminals.

Here's are the responses, in full, of Hampshire Constabulary and the Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner's office.

Response from Assistant Police and Crime Commissioner, Enzo Riglia, Chair of the Safer Hampshire Business Partnership.

“The Police and Crime Commissioner takes the matters raised in the letter from Giles Semper very seriously and will be responding directly to Mr Semper on the points he raises.

"This is such an important matter, I currently chair the Safer Hampshire Business Partnership which brings business, the police, and public sector agencies to tackle business-related crime.

"Concerns raised in relation to operational issues are escalated through the Police and Crime Commissioner to the Chief Constable and District Commander.

"I have already met directly with a member of the Southampton Business Improvement District about the level of violence and aggression faced by staff at the Southampton store and a follow-up meeting with the Southampton policing team is now in place to discuss what additional support can be offered going forward.

"The Serious Violence Conference is referred to in the letter and this is an important and significant event by the Southampton Violence Reduction Unit, established through national funding coordinated by the strategic Violence Reduction Unit run from the Police and Crime Commissioner’s office.

"The conference is another important opportunity for businesses in Southampton to feed in their concerns and work with the Southampton VRU to develop solutions.

"We shall continue to work with business partners as we are doing now to address their concerns and work with them to identify appropriate solutions to keep businesses a vibrant and safe part of the local community.”

Hampshire Constabulary

Hampshire Constabulary Acting Superintendent Phil Lamb said “We understand the frustrations felt by businesses in the area and we are committed to helping address these issues.

“Our priorities are incidents that cause high harm and involve vulnerable people, such as most serious violence, domestic abuse and serious sexual offences. The nature of these offences cause the most harm to people and this is where our focus must be.

“Southampton is a large and complex policing district which is made up of four policing sectors. The teams in our central sector that cover the city centre have some of the highest resource, however, there are densely populated areas that surround the city that often require resources to be re-deployed to priority incidents, taking them away from the city centre.

“We attend regular meetings with members of Southampton’s Business Improvement District (BID) to discuss concerns and provide advice on alternative measures for businesses to consider implementing to help reduce crime.

“Through these meetings we have built up positive relationships and will continue to provide support.

“Whilst we understand there is crime associated with vagrancy, we believe that effective support services and charities are the agencies best equipped to improve the complex issues surrounding street begging and homelessness.”

A Hampshire Constabulary spokeseprson said: "By March 2021, we will have increased our police officer numbers by 156. This is our year one allocation from the national increase, and was confirmed by the Government in the budget last week.

"Our recruitment is progressing well, with another recruitment window due to open in the coming weeks. We would encourage anyone who wants to make a difference to their community to visit our website and find out more about the opportunities that we have.

"We also know that officers will leave or retire over this period of time, and that we have a historic deficit in our police officer numbers. We therefore need to recruit far more than the 156 figure.

"We welcome the opportunity to increase our police officer numbers in a way that we did not previously think would be possible. Recruitment and training takes time but this is positive news for our communities, enabling us to invest even more in tackling the kind of violence and high harm offences that impact communities and businesses.

"Like most police forces, Hampshire Constabulary has seen a decrease in police officer numbers in recent years, with a decline of around 1,000 officers since 2010."