Teen beauty spot drinkers are ramblers, not rebels
- Dave Burrows
Philip Dunne MP backs Church Stretton citizen patrols
Tuesday 2nd November 2010, 9:39AM GMT.
Plans for Police Academy-style citizen street patrols to combat anti-social behaviour in Church Stretton have won the backing of county MP Philip Dunne.
The MP for Ludlow has claimed the plans for Church Stretton, which would see members of the public don high visibility jackets and patrol around the town, could help cut out incidents of anti-social behaviour and vandalism.
He has written to Superintendent Pete Lightwood at West Mercia Police to see if the idea can be pursued further.
Mr Dunne has compared the idea to the pilot Ludlow Community Alcohol Partnership (L-CAP) which already sees police and the local community working together to help combat under-age drinking.
Patrols will be run on Friday and Saturday nights in Ludlow in the run-up to Christmas and Mr Dunne said he would be joining one of them.
The idea is the brainchild of John Woolmer, of Church Stretton Community Group, who said he was inspired to act after seeing 15 instances of vandalism affecting community projects in Church Stretton.
He has based his idea on Streetwatch schemes already in place in Hampshire, Surrey, and Bedfordshire where citizens patrol the streets to create a noticeable presence. It is also similar to the 1987 film Police Academy 4, where officers train members of the public to form Citizens On Patrol units (COPs) to help fight crime.
Mr Dunne said: “I have written to the superintendent for Shropshire division and I look forward to discussing with them whether this is something they are willing to support.
“I have spoken to John Woolmer and he has given me some examples of where this has been happening with the support of police forces.
“The Ludlow Community Alcohol Partnership which is involving police and local traders in trying to reduce alcohol abuse among the young, but that’s including patrols on Friday and Saturday nights until Christmas and I will be joining one of those.
“Police are already engaged with something with concerned citizens in Shropshire.
“The Church Stretton initiative isn’t concentrated on alcohol in the same way, but it’s not that dissimilar,” he added.
The idea has received a lukewarm reaction from town mayor Bob Welch, who has claimed since CCTV was brought in at the town park and other sites there had been very few incidents of anti-social behaviour.
By Peter Kitchen
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How about getting some Police on the beat? No one needs old curtain twitching pensioners wandering around in yellow jackets….thats worse than those failed CSO’s….
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if you hadnt noticed mr cameron etc have decided we dont nead more police patroling our streets so they have taken away some of their budget so less police it seems will in future make our streets safer they obviously come from the same noddy town as you as the rest of us know we need more police not less and as for ”twitching pensioner”if it where left to you morons we’d throw away the keys to the mad house and allow the inmates to run the show which in my view is exactly what is happening instead of blaming all our ills on benefit cheats do what you promised you would do and get this economy going again instead of stagnating it by taking us back to maggies time all over again only this time is the unemployed not the miners.. ever notice the tories always tell you to get on your bike and find a job when in reality there aint any.
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Judging by the sort of behaviour we experienced visiting there with my mother in law several years ago when an elderly gentleman verbally abused us muttering something about ethnic cleansing I think there is already enough vigilantism there.
I can only assume it was because we were parking in his favourite spot and my M in L has got a Brummy accent!
I have seen planning applications where parchialism has been hugely evident particularly regarding services for young people. I presume these do gooders will be targetting that age group.
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Great idea and it would not cost the tax payer unlike 2 cpso. What we must remember cpso are not sudo police officers they are there just to be seen and to observe and report back to the police all can be done by volunteers . Well done to the people of Church Stretton .
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I’m intrigued by the idea of a Police Academy in Church Stretton. Do you happen to know if they will be a rag-tag bunch of social misfits, borderline nut jobs and eccentrics who will get up to all sorts of high-jinx before going on a mission to Moscow at which point the whole idea will be disbanded ? If it is, then I support Mr Dunne supporting it.
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What a ridiculous idea.
Admittedly, the Anti-Social Behaviour is unacceptable.
However, it is mostly caused by beered up youngsters OR middle aged men who decide to have a scrap.
How are some pensioners in flourescent jackets going to prevent this type of trouble?
If anything, it is going to put them in danger, not stop the problem.
Proper policing would be the answer. A few weeks back, the police were needed, and a patrol from BISHOPS CASTLE were the ones who had to deal with the problem, by which time the offenders were well gone.
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What a ridiculous idea, that has not been thought through.
The sensible answer would be to get the MP to lobby parliament for an increase in police funds for proper policing by reducing foreign aid by at least £1bn.
If these citizen patrols do see anti-social behaviour what will they do? they have no powers and can only report perceived offences to the police. Will they report every piece of litter dropped, people swearing etc thus increasing the already stretched resources of the current police force in Mercia? What will be their remit, will it be sensible? what will happen if these citizens are attacked? Yes, they wil call the police….. swings and roundabouts, swings and roundabouts!
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Why dont they get the Local Police Officer out on the beat. He always goes on in the papers about how fed up he is about not meeting local people at PACT meetings. Get those useless waste of Public Money Plastic Police CSO’s out as well.
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Yes, as I predicted in the last item on this subject, if Mr. Dunne was contacted about this he would go by the correct channel and approach the Divisional Commander rather than the bad mannered and wholly incorrect way of “foreign” senior officers doing emails to this paper as a result of one of these people who wish to implement this scheme approaching the local beat officer who has no authority to give it any support or credence. Whether the decision by the Police is “yes” or “no”, the populace of Church Stretton can rest assured that the decision will be made at the proper level by senior officers in this force and uninfluenced by any other force far removed from Church Stretton.
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If anyone would like more information about Street Watch then please visit
http://www.street-watch.org.uk
We would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
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I am very sorry that one person posting here has taken such a rude and undignified approach to a senior officer who has kindly posted to supply information to our community.
I took his advice and to seek some facts contacted Street Watch and received a very detailed questions and answers sheet. Having initially sat on the fence I am very impressed.
The area around Swain’s Meadow would really benefit from residents coming together in this way. I’m up for it and we should welcome the understanding and experience offered by other forces who have adopted it.
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Trevor, whether you like it or not, there are certain protocols in the police Force and the “Senior Officer” to which you refer broke them, rather than me being rude, there were certain incorrect points also made by this officer, the main one being that contrary to what he said, it is not a countrywide scheme, indeed at the time he commented, only 3 out of 43 forces had adopted the scheme. Rather than being “rude or undignified”, had I been a Senior Police Officer in Shrewsbury, I would have been seriously offended by this “foreign” officer identifying himself by name, rank and designation and commenting on matters in a different force area which were of no concern of his whatsoever, I wonder if the Hampshire Police would have welcomed a senior West Mercia Officer emailing a Hampshire newspaper and officially commenting on an issue brought up by a member of the public in Hampshire. These things are “just not done”. I could not care less whether you have this scheme or not or whether West Mercia give it their support, I do care for the falling standards in the Police Force of which this matter is but one example.
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Good on em, Its a lot better than sitting at a keyboard moaning about useless Police officers sitting in cars eating donuts..
Its everbody’s responsibility to keep the streets safe and not the Police’s fault when crime gets committed..
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