👮‍♂️ A message from your local officer 👮‍♂️

Good afternoon all,

Its PC 28670 Jamie Christian, your local officer here. 

It’s been a really busy few weeks, so I am sorry I haven’t been able to put a post out of late. That said here is a roundup of all things Baffins: 

🚲Thefts of E-bikes/bikes 

We are seeing an increase across Portsmouth in E-bike and motorbike thefts, a number of which have been taken from the Baffins area. This includes bikes being stolen from garages. If you are the owner of these style bikes, you maybe interested to read some of the below which provides some really good advice around the best ways to secure your bike. 

From my perspective, we have seen several people quickly and successfully recovering their stolen bikes due to the fitting of GPS trackers secured and hidden on their bikes. This includes things like Apple “Airtags” hidden under seats or other brands placed inside the locked seat compartment.  They have proven to be incredibly effective bits of kit and are widely available online, in most reputable bike stores and places like Halfords.  I highly recommend looking into these if finances allow, especially if you have spent a lot of money on your bikes. 

🛵While we are discussing stolen bikes, we’ve recently recovered a blue Suzuki moped, registration VK69 OPC which was dumped in the Baffins area. The bike also came with an unexpected security feature…. a very relaxed cat sitting proudly on the seat, pretending to be one of our fur-ensic officers. We believe it may be stolen, but police/DVLA records haven’t been updated, so we’re unable to identify the current owner. If this is your bike, please get in touch.

🗣️PACT meeting: 

We are holding a PACT (Police and Community Together) meeting on Wednesday 11th March 2026. This will be at the Fratton Together Pantry, 85 Fratton Road, Portsmouth between 16:00 – 18:00. This is an opportunity to come and speak to myself, PC 28834 Chris Middleton (the Fratton officer) and the head of Community Safety from Portsmouth City Council about issues affecting you and your neighbourhood. Feel free to pop along for a chat if you are around.

🛒Shoplifting:

We continue to take action against those shoplifting in the Baffins area, which continues to affect our local stores. A recent charge relates to a male from Portsmouth who has been charged for 9 shoplifting offences, 5 of which are from a store in our area. He has been charged and remanded to prison for the next 4 months. 

🌳Cobden Park: 

Many of you will have heard that I recently arrested a male for numerous offences, after allegedly assaulting a child on their way to school. The following charges were authorised by the CPS: 

This male remains in custody. Were we able to identify this male after continued and persistent patrols of the area and further aided by the CCTV camera I asked the council to install back in October last year. The team and I will always take reports of this nature very seriously and will do our upmost to identify those responsible. 

🧭Scouts

PCSO Tiver and I had the pleasure of attending the 54th Portsmouth Scout Group, held in the hall in Cobden Park. We had been asked to deliver a talk on internet safety and online catfishing. It was good to speak to a group who were so engaging and enthusiastic. Thereafter, the scouts all had the chance to ask questions, try on my handcuffs and some of the other items of our personal protective equipment. We also got to see photos and videos of all the activities they had taken part in, and it looked like a lot of fun! If your son or daughter (ages from 4 – 14) are looking for something to do in their spare time, I highly recommend this. 

🏫Langstone School 

PCSO Tiver and I were invited to Langstone School to judge their poster competition. The kids have been learning about terrorism and stereotyping and made posters about what they had learnt. It was the job for PCSO Tiver and I to pick the top two, which was difficult as everyone had clearly put a lot of thought and effort into them. Although we were only meant to be there for a short while, we took part in an impromptu Q&A session about what it is like being in the police. One pupil asked, “how heavy is your kit?”. There is only one way to properly explain that, so the pupil was asked to come up and try my kit on and then help me “arrest” his friend.   

Activities like this, especially with the younger generation, are vital. Kids these days see a lot of videos on social media with little or no context given and can negatively portray policing. By showing kids that the police are approachable, here to help and explaining some of what they see can help us to change these perceptions. 

🎓Portsmouth College

On Wednesday, we also held one of our regular drop-in sessions for students at Portsmouth College. This provides the students the opportunity to raise any concerns with us in addition to asking questions about the police.  Several students we spoke too are on the Uniformed Public Services Course, so it provides them a chance to seek advice around the recruitment process, joining us for observer shifts and what to expect from a career in policing. The team and I are hoping to do some more specific work with students on this course soon. 

As always, feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions or concerns. 

Jamie Christian (28670)