Since the last newsletter there have been several developments. Gary Summerfield and myself have been to several meetings with the City Centre Management (CCM) regarding StoreWatch.
In April Ian Hinds (Police Crime Prevention) arranged a survey of StoreWatch subscribers. Ian (and colleagues) visited some 48 stores, the majority had no problems and said the system worked well, 17 were reported as not working. I visited most of these stores and found no problems. In most cases the management had not been consulted by Ian Hinds. The point of logging on in the morning was brought up and it was found that between 17 – 21 stores regularly called in for a radio check. This should be optional, call in only if you require confirmation your radio is working.
In the main the proposal by CCM is that StoreWatch would provide information sharing and support with a paid administrator, this has been based on Citywatch scheme based in Leicester. James Bancroft from this scheme has been to Derby to explain how this system operates. Basically each store is charged £560.00 p.a. this includes the hire of a radio. Whilst there are many good points with this type of scheme the radio is intergral to the scheme. If you do not want the information sharing you cannot have access to the radio content.
The StoreWatch committee met last week to discuss these proposals and the outcome was that StoreWatch should remain as it is. A separate independent operation could be run to cover exclusion orders, crime reduction schemes, training, and photo sharing. This would be similar to the scheme previously run by Les Hall.
StoreWatch have already implemented sharing of information, by way of photos of known criminals being made available for viewing in Westfield’s control room, and at our meetings held every six weeks. These photos are from Westfield’s CCTV, and StoreWatch members cameras. Members can bring photos of suspects to these sessions. Police are now providing up-to-date images. All these photos are covered by the data sharing protocol.
Training is
available before or after trading hours.
The next meeting is on Tuesday 15th July at 0830am in Westfields conference room – Please attend this meeting as we require your views on how the system can move forward.
Any comment for inclusion to the meeting to:
Fax: to Storewatch on 01332 340017 or
Tel: on 01332 380500
Bert Mason/ Gary Sommerfield
4th July 2008