Volunteering Matters - Neighbourhood Watch

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Police Chaplaincy ServiceVolunteering Matters is pleased to welcome Keith Hitchmanfrom Merseyside, who talks about the Chaplaincy ServiceChaplains make regular visits to stations and places of work. Aspart of the pastoral care package we offer a 'Listening & CoachingService', as well as support for retired officers.As a Chaplaincy we seek to engage with policing and justiceissues where appropriate. In May, together with 'Riverforce'(Merseyside Police Christian Support Network), we hosted apanel discussion on the theme of 'Restorative Justice – Does itwork?'Chaplains also act as important community bridge-builders,helping to connect Merseyside Police with local churches,minority religious communities and community agencies.Four of the Merseyside Police Chaplaincy Team is also StreetPastors with the Liverpool City Centre Street Pastors project.Street Pastors is a national Christian charity working with thePolice and Local Authorities in deploying teams are volunteersinto the night-time economy to help with pastoral issues whichmight arise on the streets.Likewise the Chaplaincy has been involved in organising a seriesof church-based meetings across Liverpool in support of the ChiefConstable's 'Relentless' campaign against gang and gun crime inthe city and region.My name is Keith Hitchman and it is my privilege to lead theMerseyside Police Chaplaincy Service.Formed in July 2011 at the request of Chief Constable JonMurphy, the Merseyside Police Chaplaincy team is made up of12 volunteer Chaplains, nine of which are local religious leadersand three serving police officers. The service is also multi-faith,and includes a Muslim and a Jewish chaplain, as well asChaplains representing Roman Catholic, Anglican, Free andIndependent church traditions. Committed as we are to diversityand inclusion, there is a Chaplain dedicated to this task.Our primary purpose to ‘provide personal, practical, andspiritual care' for all staff, irrespective of religious affiliation orcommitment. To this end there is a chaplain for each BasicCommand Unit. Each Chaplain commits to a minimum of 8hours per month as a volunteer. In achieving these aims we workclosely with the various Staff Support Networks offered byMerseyside Police.In addition to pastoral care we offer operational support as andwhen required, responding to major incidents when called upon.The Chaplaincy service has been warmly received by MerseysidePolice. In the words of Superintendent Rowley Moore of theMerseyside Police Community Engagement Team “MerseysidePolice's recognition of the need for a chaplaincy service isto be applauded and wholeheartedly embraced. PersonallyI am excited, humbled, energised and delighted with theintroduction of chaplains. They provide much neededspiritual and practical support and truly understand whatit means to be an individual within Merseyside Police.”Revd. Keith HitchmanPioneer Minister, Diocese of LiverpoolForce Chaplain, Merseyside PoliceYou can also visit http://www.police-chaplains.org.uk/NACPationalssociation ofhaplains to theoliceSEVEN
Crimestoppers forging partnershipswith the police and rural communitiesOn March 23rd 2012, twenty ninerepresentatives of rural communities andbusinesses in Cumbria gathered at CumbriaPolice HQ at the invitation of the ChiefConstable and regional director ofCrimestoppers – rural crime being the priorityfor this charity in 2012. Delegates includedfarmers, agricultural suppliers, oil suppliers,Parish Councils and students from the localagricultural college.The objectives of the gathering were to;identify the crime and behaviour types that are of greatest concernto rural communities; what was already being done in theseregards, what works, what doesn’t work; identify ways in which thepolice, Crimestoppers and rural communities can add value existinggood practice without duplicating effort.The group identified a number of issues as being of primaryconcern to rural communities, some of which are high on the policeradar (Quad bike, tool, machinery, metal and fuel thefts; Cannabiscultivation) and others which maybe don’t get such a high profile,or ‘satisfactory’ response (Livestock thefts; Fraudulent insuranceclaims; Deer and Salmon poaching).There was recognition that there existed many good initiativestargeting rural issues, but participants identified some additionalways in which to get crime prevention messages across whilstengaging members of rural communities. These included;FARMWATCH OPERATION:On 30th May, twenty four farmers and representatives of the ruralcommunity assembled in Appleby police station at 8:30pm (NOT thesame people as in March). These individuals were allocated a policeradio (on restricted band) or mobile telephone, and allocated astrategic location at which to sit (using their own vehicles). Theywere instructed to report vehicle movements which were thenchecked out by operational police staff. The operation went on intothe early hours of the following days, and whilst only resulting inthe apprehension of some poachers that evening, the long termeffect has been the increase of ‘suspicious vehicle reports’ to theparticipating Neighbourhood Policing Team from two per week, totwo per day!SOCIAL MEDIA:Participants acknowledged the value, and limitations, of socialmedia as a medium for distributing crime prevention messages andengaging the public. One of the primary barriers to the positive useof social media is the limited capacity and skills set within thepolice.Participants at the meeting from the local college (who were on an‘armed services’ course, under 18 years and residents in ruralCumbria) volunteered their services to the police, all presentrecognizing that this generation have the desired skills andknowledge to use social media effectively. Plans are well advancedto recruit these individuals as Police Service Volunteers in a newspecialist role – Social Media support administrators.CRIME PREVENTION TEXT ON BUSINESS INVOICES:Timely reporting of crimes and incidents are critical to successfulpolicing and resolution of issues that cause concern to ruralcommunities. Alas, many people in rural communities observeincidents but don’t report them (evidenced by Farmwatch above!).Two businesses involved in the supply of agricultural goods tofarmers agreed at the event to include text on invoices sent tofarmers which is hoped will provide regular reminders of theimportance of doing so. The first invoices containing the text “FightCrime: Report suspicious activity to the police on 101”, will go outin July 2012.CCM Administrators – thehidden face of volunteering:Cumbria Community Messaging is the means by which the policeand partners communicate with watch groups in Cumbria. It is aninternet based service which is also open to none watch groupmembers to subscribe and receive crime and community alerts. ByJune 2012 there were over 5300 individuals registered on thesystem in Cumbria.Historically, the communication tool utilized for this purpose washoused on the police network. This restricted those registered on itto those the police chose to put on, and created a significantadministrative responsibility on the Constabulary.Cumbria Community Messaging is licensed to CumbriaNeighbourhood Watch Association, with Cumbria Police (and otherpartners) utilizing the system as ‘Information Providers’. This modelallows the police to communicate with those on the system (whochoose to allow the police to do so), without the administrativeresponsibility associated with being the license holder).In reality, the Constabulary and partners provide some adminsupport to the system, but given that the county NeighbourhoodWatch Association are the license holder, it allows them to provideadditional valuable support to the police by undertaking manyadmin tasks on the system.These include:• Adding users to the system• Responding to issues highlighted by users• Dealing with service users who have problems - changes ofmobile phone numbers or e mail addresses are identified by thesystem and sent to ‘Members with Communication issues’ foraction.• Helping ‘map’ schemes on the system and verify schemecoordinators.There are presently eleven Cumbria Neighbourhood WatchAssociation, police and partner agency volunteers withadministrator rights on the Cumbria Community Messaging. Thesevolunteers provide many hours of unpaid time, and immeasurablebenefits to the police, their partners and communities aroundCumbria.Further information can be obtained from Andrew.baines@cumbria.police.uk mobile: 07971140575VOLUNTEERING MATTERSEIGHT
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Volunteering Matters - Neighbourhood Watch

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