Ross will shortly have two new faces helping police the streets, as a new Sergeant and Constable join the local policing team. PC Mark Murphy will take over as Local Police Officer for Ross-on-Wye Town next month, replacing Jerry Coyd who has already taken up a new post as a Sergeant in Hereford. Mark is not completely new to the area, however. After spending seven years as a Hereford based officer, he was posted to the south section in October last year, where he joined colleagues providing 24-hour a day response policing to Ross and Ledbury areas. He will soon become a familiar face at PACT Meetings (Partners And Communities Together) and is excited to be settling into his new role. He said: "I'm looking forward to getting to know the local community over the coming weeks, building on the contacts I have already made in the past five months. "Local Policing is all about being visible in the community and helping people tackle the issues that affect their quality of life. I hope that people will take the opportunity to stop and have a chat in the street, contact me at the police station or take an active part in the PACT process so that we can work together to make Ross-on-Wye an even better place." Another new face on the Local Policing Team is Sergeant Alex Warner, although like Mark, he is not completely new to the area. Alex joined Herefordshire Division from neighbouring South Worcestershire Division last year, and again like Mark was part of the response team covering South Herefordshire. Now though he manages the teams of PCs and CSOs covering both the Ross Town and Ross Rural areas and is enjoying the experience. "We have a fantastic team here at Ross Police Station and it has been great to see some of the progress we have been making already towards tackling some of the issues raised through the PACT process," he said. "Recently this has included mounting additional patrols where anti-social behaviour has been reported and actively challenging those individuals who cause problems. In turn, this has resulted in a number of arrests and a general reduction in calls about such nuisance behaviour. "I hope this does encourage more people to play a part in PACT - we do listen to what people tell us and take action to solve the problems."
