Northumbria's New Police Plan Takes Aim at E-Bikes and Street Drinking

Northumbria’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Susan Dungworth, has published a refreshed Police and Crime Plan that adds electric motorbikes and scooters, safety on public transport, and adults taking or dealing drugs and drinking in public to the force’s anti-social behaviour priorities, and sets up three new flagship programmes on hate crime, women’s safety in public places and keeping women out of prison.

The plan covers Northumberland and Tyne and Wear, North Tyneside included, and runs to 2029. It was launched this week after a summer of consultation that the commissioner’s office says involved thousands of conversations with residents, community groups and partners. The full document is on the commissioner’s website.

What is new in the six priorities

The six priorities from the original 2024 plan stay. Each has a new focus, which the office says reflects what people told the commissioner matters most:

• Engaged and responsive police force: neighbourhood policing, contact with victims and officer wellbeing.
• Crime and anti-social behaviour: electric motorbikes and scooters, safety on public transport, and adults taking or dealing drugs and drinking in public places.
• Serious violence and organised crime: working with partners on illicit trade on high streets. The plan names illegal tobacco, vapes and counterfeit goods.
• Violence against women and girls: online crimes, and behavioural change programmes to reduce harm to women and girls.
• Hate crime and community cohesion: supporting communities at times of heightened national tensions.
• Victims and justice: working with perpetrators, reducing reoffending and diverting people from custody.

“My ambition for local people remains simple: safer streets, stronger communities,” Ms Dungworth said. “This means we have fewer victims and that more offenders are brought to justice and guided away from further offending.”

The three flagship programmes

Hate crime. The programme aims to build confidence in reporting, improve support for victims and bring communities together. The plan says a new Hate Crime External Advisory Panel will let people with lived experience challenge how Northumbria Police handles hate crime cases, and that the office will pilot an independent reporting route for victims alongside the existing Safe Reporting Centres.

Women’s safety in public places. “Women and girls have consistently told the Commissioner they do not always feel safe in public spaces,” the office said. The plan puts the number of women and girls living in Northumbria at over 740,000 and says police, councils, transport providers and voluntary groups will work together through a shared Women’s Safety Charter, with Safe Havens and frontline support in the night-time economy. The free active bystander course for parents on 4 and 11 December is part of the same push on misogyny.

Supporting women away from custody. Many women in the criminal justice system have experienced trauma, abuse and significant disadvantage, the office said, and this programme focuses on preventing further offending and helping women get support instead of a prison sentence. It includes the Women’s Intensive Supervision Court, which sits in North Tyneside, and the plan says the next focus is stable housing for women leaving prison.

“These flagship programmes are where I want to make a distinctive and lasting difference,” Ms Dungworth said. “They are about bringing partners together, tackling the root causes of harm and focusing on prevention, not just enforcement.”

What it means for Whitley Bay

Several of the new lines read directly onto the coast:

• Seasonal operations on the coast. The plan asks the force to “keep building on structured seasonal operations supporting coastal communities and city centres during busy periods”.
• E-bikes and motorbikes. Police are asked to work with partners to find e-bike and motorbike disorder hotspots, keep investing in drones to track motorbike-related anti-social behaviour, and back the commissioner’s lobbying for tougher rules on retailers and websites selling non-compliant bikes and conversion kits.
• Transport. The force is asked to work with public transport operators on anti-social behaviour and crime on the network, and young people told the consultation they want public transport to feel safer, especially when travelling alone or at night.
• Hate crime reporting. One of the resident quotes printed in the plan comes from North Tyneside. A man aged 25 to 34 said: “There needs to be more of an understanding on the definition of a hate crime so victims feel more confident to file a report and access support.”

The plan also sets out a “Youth Focus” under each priority. Young people asked for “stronger action around people drinking alcohol or taking substances in public spaces, which makes them feel unsafe”, and for youth provision that is “not just offered one day a week”.

Holding the force to account

The commissioner says she will check Northumbria Police’s progress against the plan through her scrutiny programme, with each of the six priorities examined twice a year and reports presented to the Police and Crime Panel. The plan puts the force’s net revenue budget at £438 million.

“I will continue to hold Northumbria Police to account for delivering against the commitments in this Plan, because the people of Northumbria deserve to see real results,” Ms Dungworth said.

The plan also notes that the role of Police and Crime Commissioner will pass to a new body in 2028.