Number of drug related stop and searches by police in Bury goes up four-fold in a year

The number of drug related stop and searches undertaken by police in Bury has rocketed in the past year. Figures published by Bury Council this week show that 254 such searches took place in the borough from April to June this year, up from just 65 searches in thethree month period from July to September, 2021.

A report has been sent to councillors six months after the development of a new Community Safety Partnership (CSP) plan for Bury which also identified a spate of knife robberies in the town centre earlier this year. The plan’s six priorities are to reducing drug related offending, to support victims and tackle causes of domestic abuse, strengthen community cohesion, create and maintain safe spaces, tackle anti-social behaviour and reducing re offending.

Weekly neighbourhood priority setting meetings now take place between GMP neighbourhood teams and the council’s community safety manager to shape responses to emerging crime trends. The figures show that the number of crimes recorded in the borough linked to drugs was 65 in the most recent quarter, which is showing an upward trend.

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There were 321 offences linked to alcohol between April to June this year, down from 367 in the three month period from July to September 2021. The report gave details on a police operation earlier this summer to tackle drugs related crime.

It said: “During May 2022, a day of action was led by GMP in Bury and the wider community safety partnership, named Operation Avro. A particular focus of Avro was on tackling drug-related offending.

“Through the operation approximately £650,000 of class A and B drugs were seized and taken off the streets of