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Three fire engines from Brynmawr, Ebbw Vale and Blaenau Gwent rushed to a fire from which two people needed to be rescued and seven had to be evacuated. The early morning blaze took place on Wednesday (March 9) and affected a block of flats after a fire in Brynmawr, Blaenau Gwent.

Dyfed-Powys Police Authority are considering plans for a fixed-wing aircraft which will replace its police helicopter if plans for a National Police Air Service (NPAS) in Wales and England get the go-ahead. Figures suggest only 61% of the force’s population could be reached under the new proposed 20-base system.

In a statement following a blaze which affected a set of shops, South Wales Fire and Rescue Service said it needed eight crews and fire engines to fight a fire which engulfed the stores on Maesglas Retail Park in Newport which occurred over the course of a night. South Wales Fire and Rescue Service commented that three stores were ablaze – Comfort Zone, Leather Leaders and Floors-2-Go.

Businesses and individuals from North Wales attended a briefing on e-crime, with various experts speaking about how criminal activity has evolved and used facts to illustrate the dangers businesses face.

A study by publishers AVISIAN found that security cards must be able to validate and secure identities. This has created demand for multiple layers of card security including two-factor authentication to validate identity, and biometric templates that must be stored on the card.

South Wales Police is one of the forces most heavily affected by funding cuts as it is due to lose 256 officers and 432 support staff by the end of 2014-15. Peter Vaughan, Chief Constable of South Wales Police, said: “Whilst reductions of such scale will obviously have an impact on the way we do business, we are trying our absolute best to ensure that the impact on the delivery of our services to our communities is minimised.”

Organised crime is profiting from mass thefts of everyday items such as aluminium beer kegs because of a booming illicit trade in stolen steel.

South Wales Police figures have revealed a massive drop in crime in Neath Port Talbot during December. The most recent stats show there have been 487 crimes reported during the month with 43.5 per cent of crimes detected. This compares with 631 reported crimes in December 2009.

From selling car insurance quotes, the ‘Go Compare’ star has now joined forces with Gwent Police in their battle against burglars. The opera singing cult figure of comparison website Gocompare.com’s TV adverts, played by Welsh tenor Wynne Evans, is starring in a new 40-second film aimed at reminding people of the importance of securing their homes.

A theft at Tesco in Glynneath is believed to be the largest single theft of fuel in the Neath Port Talbot area. Neath and Port Talbot police have confirmed that around 11,000 litres were stolen some time between 1am and 5am on Saturday (January 8, 2011).

An alarming rise in farm crime has been investigated in a special screened report on S4C’s countryside and farming series Ffermio. Farmers such as Lloyd Griffiths of Llanfynydd, Carmarthenshire have had to step up their security, since thieves have been targeting the area for their farm gates. A number of police forces have set up communication systems which enable farmers to contact them quickly if they spot intruders on their farms.

Comprising the most comprehensive set of figures yet, during the past 12 months burglars and people convicted of robbery were among those who were wrongly released from jail in England, Wales and Scotland. The Prison Service takes public protection extremely seriously, a spokesman for the Prison Service of England and Wales said.