How Home Watch is helping

As I mentioned challenging times ahead in my last update I feel that I should start with some news on this: The last two weeks have incorporated the school half term holidays and we have had a very successful time. There was no significant rise in crime over this period which is an excellent achievement.

We have also had a significant result in relation to metal thefts in the City Centre. I noted that various commercial properties around the city were having copper piping stolen from air conditioning systems and sometimes even gas systems. There are clear implications for safety here and we needed to act quickly to stem any trend developing.

I am aware of the rise in price of scrap metal, which has the potential for us to see a rapid growth in this type of crime. Through quick and thorough work from my team, we identified, arrested and interviewed a male who has admitted several offences around the city and is awaiting trial at court.

This is an excellent result, and since this arrest there has been a notable decline in these offences. I also re-enforced this message on an interview with Anglia News last week, to ensure that everyone is alerted to this issue.

I continue to work on delivering the best possible quality of service to the people who call on us for help. I’m sure that many will have seen our Chief Constable Phil Gormley in the media recently, depicting his vision of reducing the emphasis on a ‘performance culture’ and developing more focus on the quality of the service we provide to the public.

While we will always be required to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour (and rightly so), I feel strongly that it is absolutely right that we are delivering a high quality of service and striving to exceed the expectations of members of the public when we perform our roles. Our drive is to ensure that we deal pro-actively with issues that arise and maximise our intelligence. I recently attended a meeting with a residents’ group to develop a Home Watch Scheme.

The Home Watch Scheme has recently been reworked and rebranded in Norfolk and given a structure that is a real enhancement to the system. Many will know similar ‘Neighbourhood Watch Schemes’ across the UK, however our recent adjustments are really making a strong base to work from. Norfolk Constabulary’s Home Watch Scheme is an excellent way to enhance relationships between the Police and the public and encourage the sharing of information.

This allows people to feel safer and more confident in the Police and in turn for the Police to be more ‘clued up’ as to what is really happening in the neighbourhoods. We can therefore be better armed to tackle these issues proactively. It provides a regular meeting structure for residents with a member of the Safer Neighbourhood Team and a platform for information sharing and relationship building between the public and the Police.

I am keen to develop the Home Watch schemes within the city further as I feel strongly that people who live and work in the Norwich area are our strongest ally in the battle to reduce crime, but also in the drive to develop our service delivery. When we understand what people truly want from their Police Service (and this may look very different in Norwich City Centre to that in a rural community), only then will be in a position to provide the service to that level and ideally beyond it.

I look forward to updating you again in a couple of weeks.