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My Neighbourhood Watch Briefing - Issue 4 - April 2009

NHW IN TOP TABLE CRIME TALK

YOUR senior NHW colleagues have been locked in Whitehall conference rooms helping design a new strategy to combat crime.

Meetings with Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and Neighbourhood Crime boss Louise Casey came against a backdrop of an alarming rise in burglaries and robberies. While latest official figures indicate that,overall, crime is down by 39% and burglary by 55% these comforting statistics lag reality and mask a rapid deterioration as the credit crunch bites.

MyNHW chair Marion Lewis, who has played a key role in these summits, fears the situation could become much worse. She said:"We have learned that the incidence of burglaries and robberies is increasing - one police force, Lincolnshire, saw a 97% rise in robberies between September and November compared with the same period last year. At the same time other forces saw increases of between 20% and 50%. It's very worrying."

One of the conferences, called Real Help in Hard Times, saw the Home Secretary ask advice from Marion and representatives of other organisations as 31 of the 43 police forces across the country reported cime increases in the last four months of '07 - with a total of 5,000 more burglaries.

That meeting followed an earlier Home Office briefing, attended by Louise Casey, Director General for Neighbourhood Crime and Justice, at which MyNHW officials were put on alert for a new wave of domestic burglaries.

Said Mrs Lewis:" We are happy to work with the Home Secretary to help combat what is a very worrying development. We are already working on a package of crime fighting tips to be placed on our website."

But it's not all gloom and doom. Insiders say that the Government may well be poised to announce a financial package to help Neighbourhood Watches across the country.

Watch this space.

KEY POINTS IN CRIME FIGHTING
WHEN Marion Lewis met Jacqui Smith some key issues emerged. Now they are available in a handy pin up and keep format.

Key points -

Burglary is down 55% compared to 1997- the risk of being a victim of burglary is down to 2.4% (from 5.6% in 1997).
The twin approaches to keeping burglary down are to reduce opportunity and reduce incentive, underpinned by target hardening and offender management. NHW can play its part in helping with this.
With 11% more police than in 1997, over 3600 neighbourhood policing teams we could be thought to be well prepared to tackle burglary.
NHW can play its part in reminding people about the importance of home security and working with those who are most vulnerable to burglary.
The communication campaign launched on 16th February and the new website to promote the simple things that people can do to protect their homes are both tools that NHW members can use to help themselves and others.
The significant reductions in burglary mean that it is not in the foefront of peoples concerns, which may give criminals increased opportunities - it is therefore important to remind people to use the security features they have and where necessary to install new security.
Key message is to empower people by helping them to understand the simple steps they can take to secure their homes. Security should be seen as part of our home investment plans rather than being packaged as "protection".
There are many examples of work being undertaken by NHW and Home Watch schemes at local level (see example above). We can use this website to share these best practices…so let us know what you are doing? etc
Further examples can be found in the Training Toolkit Module 11 Security of buildings & property.

LET US KNOW WHAT YOUR ARE DOING
Ten thousand, Two Steps Ahead cards were distributed to households in West Bridgford, by Neighbourhood Watch coordinators, from last August. Other areas in Rushcliffe took the cards and the County Council followed by producing 30 000 which are currently being distributed in selected parts of the county. Each card lists 27 security tips as well as useful contact details.

Click here to read the article

FINAL VERSION OF POLICING PLEDGE
Use the link below to download the final version of the Policing Pledge.

http://www.mynhw.co.uk/final_policing_pledge.pdf

SHIRE FEAR AS CRIME STALKS COUNTRYSIDE
THE recession crime wave the Home Secretary feared looks to have already hit rural communities.

New figures obtained by the Daily Telegraph show that almost two thirds of the police forces surveyed in England and Wales showed a rise in robberies in the past three months, compared to the same period in the previous year.

The impact has been most acute in rural areas where there has been a 17.5% rise in violent thefts. The worst hit county, Cambridgeshire, also showed an 88% rise in violent assaults and a 51% increase in burglary from December to March.

Stuart Burgess, head of the Commission for Rural Communities said that the recession was taking a stronger grip on rural areas, such as North Yorkshire and Cornwall, and predicted a bleak outlook for the next six months.

"A lower incidence of crime is one of the reasons people choose to live in the countryside. Any rise in crime in rural communities, because of the economic downturn, would be very worrying for rural residents and for rural businesses already facing tough times in the recession," he said.

CRIMEFIGHTING FROM THE CLASSROOM
A YORKSHIRE teacher has introduced crimefighting to students thanks to a piece of imaginative movie making.

Click here to read the article

BE A NIMBY
Sometimes it's good to be a NIMBY. After all, who wants crime in their own back yard.

Not in My Neighbourhood Week: 2 – 6 November 2009
This year's Not in My Neighbourhood Week will take place from 2nd - 6th November. Last year the Week saw local partners from every region across England and Wales running activities to showcase the work that is being done to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour.

Not in My Neighbourhood Week 2008 was deemed a huge success. This success is largely due to the excellent activities run by police forces and partners during the week that brought professionals and local communities together to say no to crime in our neighbourhoods. Further information on how to get involved in the week will be available via the Home Office Crime Reduction website later on in the year.

FOCUS ON DRUGS
National Tackling Drugs Week: 8 – 12 June 2009
This dedicated week of action follows on from last year’s highly successful week which the Home Office ran for the first time. The week provided local agencies including Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships/Community Safety Partnerships, Drug and Alcohol Action Teams/Substance Misuse Action Teams and Neighbourhood Policing Teams with a platform to publicise the work they do to tackle drugs and reduce drug-related crime and to highlight the significant efforts that are being made to keep our communities safe. We would like as many local agenices and police forces around the country to take part. Your level of involvement could range from a high profile and visible police enforcement activity, to community events where the public can engage with the partner agencies to highlight local issues and concerns, through to open days and exhibitions in treatment centres.

We will shortly be producing a handbook of useful information to help those who would like to get involved with the week and further information will also be available on the Home Office Drugs Website

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