As festival-goers gear up for this year’s Glastonbury Festival police in Avon and Somerset are offering some final tips and advice for a safe and crime free event.
Every year Avon and Somerset Police work closely with the festival organisers to ensure the event remains largely crime-free and a safe environment for all festival-goers.
Crime at the festival is generally low and the crime that does occur can be easily prevented. Police advise festival-goers to leave valuables at home and only take essential items to the festival with them.
If you do have to take valuable items with you make use of the free property lock-ups throughout the site and don’t leave anything valuable unattended in your tents. Register any valuable items on the Immobilise database before you leave for home so that if anything is lost or stolen police have a better chance of reuniting you with your items if they are recovered.
While out watching your favourite bands make sure you have your phone and wallet secured tightly away. Experience shows that it’s in big crowds and ‘mosh pits’ close to stages that the thieves are more likely to target you.
Personal safety and illegal substances: No matter what myths you may have heard about police having a policy at Glastonbury of allowing people to smoke cannabis or take small amounts of other drugs, it is not true. Police have a zero tolerance policy to illegal substances and will be relentless in combating drug-related crime.
The law at Glastonbury is exactly the same as any other city, town or street in the rest of the United Kingdom when it comes to possession and use of an illegal substance. If you are found to be in possession of drugs at the festival you face arrest and prosecution as well as eviction from the site.
Contacting police at the Festival: Finally, if at the festival you do need to contact officers, the best thing to do is visit the 24-hour police station on site at the Festival. This is situated to the north of the festival site along with the other emergency services.
If you need to contact police in an emergency however always call 999.
Officers will be patrolling the site throughout the festival offering a reassuring and highly visible presence and are more than happy to chat to festival goers about their concerns. Officers will be loaded with crime prevention freebies to give away to festival-goers throughout the event.
To receive updates from the police during the festival on anything from traffic problems to beat surgeries then register for text alerts by texting ‘GLASTO’ to 81003. Everyone who registers for alerts will be entered into a prize draw to win a Sony PSP (full terms and conditions available on the police’s Glastonbury microsite – www.glastonburypolice.org).
To register on the Immobilise Database follow these instructions:
Key *#06# on your phone’s keypad to view your IMEI number.
Register by text: Then text REG followed by your IMEI number to 83010 – and Immobilise will reply with your account details and instructions. You will be charged a one-off 25p charge for the return text message.
Alternatively; register online: Visit www.immobilise.com and register for free.
To read the source article in full please go to: http://www.glastonburypolice.org/news/Details.aspx?nsid=20720#nsu-1