A New Police Force?
We recently carried out a community survey in Anchorsholme and we were very surprised at one of the statitistics that emerged. It seems that a majority of people would like to see more policing of our parks, public areas and estates.
No surprise there, I hear you say.
Well, the surprise is that they the policing to be done by their own community wardens. Not by the Police or the Council but by their own.
Their timing couldn’t be better as Cllr. Peter Callow has just announced a freeze on CCTV surveillance. As to be expected, he hasn’t actually come up with a plan B yet.
Anchorsholme certainly doesn’t need a group of vigilantes setting up but the idea of the community policing itself certainly sounds attractive. With the right amount of safe-guards built in and with the support of the local Police and Council this idea could have legs. It is certainly worth examining.
Out of interest, what was the question and what were the options, Jon?
We asked who would Police our area the best?:
a. Police
b. Local Council
c. Community Wardens
d. Private Security Firm
Are you happy with the current method of policing in anchorsholme?:
a. Yes
b. No
if No, would you be interested in Community Warden Policing?:
a. Yes
b. No
We expected the majority to vote for the Police and that they were happy with the policing because most of the other questions relating to crime, levels of crime and fear of crime were answered very positively with the majority of people in Anchorsholme feeing safe and believing the area to be a low crime area.
The biggest issue seems to youth nuisance around the Parks, especially Eastpines Park. Interestingly, this is also the only spot in Anchorsholme with a CCTV camera!
The answer seems to be two fold:
1. More regular police/community patrols.
2. More things for the kids to do.
I’d be interested to know what the respondents understood a ‘community warden’ to be. If it’s the same as the Government’s concept of what a community warden is, I have some reservations (but that’s only natural, being me).
I’m not entirely surprised that the police didn’t top the poll, but I think that might be because the question (to me) evoked a less local force, in contrast to ‘community’ wardens.
I wonder what the response would have been like if an answer like ‘neighbourhood police constables’ was included?
To be fair, I had already floated the idea of community wardens in a previous ward newsletter I didn’t get much feedback so quite surprised by the response. My idea of the wardens is to be a highly visual group of people who’se primary aim is to help the community. They will be a link between the community, Council, Police and other agencies. I do not envisage them having any police powers
I see… I wasn’t too sure if you were referring to something like the CSAS (http://police.homeoffice.gov.uk/community-policing/citizen-focused-policing/community-safety-accredit-scheme/), which sounds like the CDR (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committees_for_the_Defense_of_the_Revolution) with fluorescent jackets
I think if more people realised that crime prevention is a responsibility everybody shares, then it might make policing a little bit easier (and it reduces the potency of the neighbourhood Norris). Citizens have a lot of power to assist in policing, but perhaps many people are just too apprehensive about what steps they really can take, lest they get arrested by the Fuzz and the crims get off (see Daily Mail passim).
Something like a watered down CDR with flourescents jackets is what I’m after. But with the emphasis on checking up to see people are allright as opposed to checking on their revolutionary activities. In the “olden” days we knew there was something if Mrs Baker wasn’t in the post office at 10 past eleven every morning and old Mr Smith collected his bread at 8.45 every day etc….
The community wardens will live in and be part of the community that they keeping an eye on. They will assist the Police and Councils without being subserviant to them.
Everyone has a personal responsiblity to help keep their neighbourhoods safe. The Police are not psychic nor can they be in two places at once. Do residents report anti social behaviour to the Police when it is happening? Looking at the Constabulary website it would appear that in June including the holidays and bank holiday not much was reported. Whilst residents should not confront anti social behaviour themselves, I do think that residents could provide the Police with more information regarding suspicious behaviour or report anit-social behaviour, drug dealers or criminal damage by phoning the non-emergency number 876611. It goes without saying that they should ring 999 if it’s an emergency situation. Lets support our Police.