Call for more police to combat ‘mindless hoods’

Downshire Ward Councillor Paul Stewart this week issued a three-pronged plea, to police, courts and community, following the latest in a recent series of burglaries in the Dromara area.

Mr. Stewart first called for additional Police resources be deployed to “the Dromara rural area” after what he called a “spike in crime over the past few months”.

He said, “After a robbery at a house in Woodvale and at a business premises in the village in the early hours of Sunday morning (April 22) I have spoken to police requesting additional resources be deployed to the rural area, particular in the early hours of the morning.

“We have seen a spike in crime in the rural Dromara and Hillsborough areas and this is totally unacceptable.”

Mr. Stewart thanked the local Community Policing Team for what he called their hard work and commitment, but insisted the additional resources

were needed.

Pledging to raise the issue when the recently launched Policing and Community Safety Partnership meets, the DUP councillor next called for courts to hand down stiffer sentences/ “In addition,” he said, “I would call for the judicial system to hand out much harder prison sentences, as I personally believe that prison does work.”

Mr. Stewart finally urged anyone with information to contact the police.

“Together we can beat these mindless hoods,” he said.

Early last month The Leader reported on a rash of burglaries in the Dromore and Dromara areas, including an incident in which a senior citizen returned to her Carnew home on Tuesday, March 20 to find thieves had ransacked the house. A day later thieves broke into a number of houses at Kinallen’s Oak Hill Road and Scolban, Dromore, while an outhouse at Grove Road, Dromara, was broken into a a quad stolen.