Northumbria Police has established a dedicated High Impact Team to combat the most harmful crimes affecting Tyneside communities. Led by Detective Sergeant Chris Johnson, the small unit of five detectives has secured prison sentences totaling well over 100 years in the last 12 months for offences including burglary, robbery, and theft.
“These are the type of offences that have the biggest impact on the community. It affects a lot of people. It's offences that have high harm,” Det Sgt Johnson explained.
Team Structure and Purpose
The High Impact Team, based in Newcastle, replaced the former Newcastle Burglary Team as crime trends shifted. “It's a small team but a dedicated team made-up of me and four detectives,” Johnson said. “It takes over what used to be a dedicated burglary team, which was always one of the force priorities. Within the same month of me taking over the whole dynamic of burglaries changed and we had to change our policing style. We don't police how we used to.”
The team focuses on acquisitive crime sprees that cause significant harm to the community. When a spike in offences occurs, area commanders request the team’s assistance to link incidents and identify patterns. “If there is a significant problem the area command would ask my team to have a look at it,” Johnson stated. “We can bring everything together in one investigation. We had a problem in the city centre with robberies. We took them on for a period until they stopped.”
Proactive Investigation Approach
The team’s ability to look at the bigger picture rather than investigating each crime in isolation has been key to its success. “My role is to look at all the acquisitive crime in a 24 hour period. It will be obvious to us what may be part of a series,” Johnson said. “It's good because I have always been proactive in my roles. This is proactive and reactive. There's no point in just reacting to everything. We need a dedicated team to pull it all together.”
By linking crimes, the team can build stronger cases, including conspiracy charges. “Sometimes with these you have got to be patient. It's not just about getting someone arrested and getting them charged with one offence. We like to be quite considered in our approach. Before we make any arrests we make sure we have already got the evidence needed,” Johnson explained. “A lot of the time you need very little evidence on one crime or a lot on others, by joining them up you have a really good conspiracy.”
The team works closely with Neighbourhood Policing Teams, which Johnson described as “our bread and butter, they are our eyes and ears. They provide intelligence. They are on the ground and locating the offenders.”
Notable Cases
One significant case involved Romanian career criminal Neculai Nederi, who stole Asian gold and other items worth over £100,000 in targeted burglaries at two Newcastle homes. The High Impact Team’s investigation led to his arrest and subsequent jailing for 45 months after he pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary at Newcastle Crown Court.
“They target specific families knowing that there's going to be high value gold stored in the house,” Johnson said. “You will tend to have the same MO. They will always break a patio window. A lot of the high value burglaries we deal with tend to be offenders from outside the area.”
Another case involved bogus caller Paul Carmen, who tricked his way into the home of a 98-year-old woman in the West End of Newcastle by claiming to be a rat catcher from the council. Once inside, he stole her purse containing bank and loyalty cards, and her bus pass. The High Impact Team launched an investigation, traced the stolen bank card to purchases of whiskey and a £20 bet, and released a CCTV image of Carmen making a purchase. Public tips led to his identification. Carmen, of Mapledene Road, Fawdon, Newcastle, admitted burglary and fraud, receiving a sentence of three years and three months.
“You have to put yourself in their shoes,” Johnson said of burglary victims. “It's going into somebody's house. It's a really emotional thing. It affects everybody differently.”
Adapting to Modern Crime
The team continuously adapts to changing criminal methods, particularly with the rise of digital technology. “It's completely different now. We are in a digital age now. We have all had to change how we operate. We are keeping pace with technology,” Johnson said. “The MO of offenders is changing so much. We have seen that have an impact over the last couple of years.”
Johnson highlighted the dual role of modern surveillance: “One of the big things that can go both for and against us is the amount of CCTV and Ring doorbells. A lot of estates have WhatsApp groups and start sharing incidents. What my team are especially good at is trawling CCTV and getting the images circulated and identifying an offender.”
The team encourages the public to report even seemingly minor incidents, as they can provide crucial links. “We always encourage people to report something because what they don't think is important might have an impact. It can give us a better understanding of what's going on in that area,” Johnson concluded.
