Police chief 'quite likes' seeing national flags

The West Midlands' chief constable has said he "quite likes" seeing the national flag flown, but community diversity should be protected.

Responding to increasing numbers of union jack and St George's flags flying across the country, Craig Guildford said: "From a policing perspective we are completely apolitical.

"When I see those flags of the union jack and the flag of St George I am as proud as anybody else. However, not everybody that lives in our country would be as tolerant as the next person and sometimes they can be used for different purposes."

He added flags being attached to lampposts was a matter for councils, which own street furniture, rather than police.

Mr Guildford told BBC Radio WM: "I quite like seeing the flags flown", but added West Midlands' community diversity should be protected "to the hilt".

He said police were only called in when flags became contentious. "If there's a potential for any breach of the police we would have some neighbourhood police in the area."

He added police would "have to record a crime" if roundabouts were permanently damaged by being sprayed with England's colours.

The police chief said his force had also been assisting others over the summer with policing protests over the housing of asylum seekers, with a team monitoring tensions and trigger incidents.

He said: "Houses of multiple occupancy, that tends to be where we get more business from a policing perspective than we do from any asylum-seeker hotel."

'Calls answered in 26 seconds'

Mr Guildford also fielded listeners' questions about shoplifting and car crime.

In Coventry, the city's Business Improvement District has introduced street patrols and a radio reporting system to combat thefts costing some retailers thousands.

Pardeep Singh Atwal, who owns West Park News in Wolverhampton, said multiple shops had been broken into in his area: "We're scared to put stock in our shops."

In response, the chief constable said prosecution rates for shoplifters had "more than trebled" locally.

He attributed it to an increase in custody suites, from four to seven, dedicated neighbourhood officers, and "radically different" call handling which saw 101 calls answered in just 26 seconds, compared to nearly half an hour three years ago.

Wolverhampton shop owner Pardeep Singh Atwal said shoplifting rates made him scared to replenish stock

Answering concerns about vehicle theft, Mr Guildford said the force could respond to calls classed as an emergency "within 10 minutes".

"Over the last three years, car crime has actually been falling," he said.

About £1m had been invested by the force into number plate tracking technology, he added, and road crime teams "proactively pursuing the most active criminals".

Ian Sandall, the Conservative ward councillor for Sedgley in Dudley, said his area had seen a "pandemic" of "youths on stolen mopeds and motorcycles terrorising the streets", and claimed local police told him there was little they could do.

Mr Guildford told him: "This week we've just actually crushed ten or twelve of those because I agree with you, they are a blight."

He encouraged people to report the issue so the force could continue to build evidence. "We seize them and it's my ambition to crush more," he added.