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St Albans Community Safety Partnership Plan 2010/11

Introduction:

This Partnership Plan outlines the key priorities for the Community Safety Partnership for 2010/11 it is based on an assessment of crime, anti social behaviour and drug and alcohol misuse in the district.

The Community Safety Plan for 2010-11 aims to build a safer St Albans through addressing these four aims;

• Preventing and reducing crime, in particular dwelling burglary, theft of and from motor vehicle, theft from person, theft from shop, robbery and drug dealing.
• Preventing and reducing anti social behaviour
• Protecting vulnerable people
• Managing offenders
• Promoting the work of the partnership and increasing public confidence.

Underpinning all of the above is the Partnership’s ability to respond to emerging issues quickly.

Members of the Community Safety Partnership are;

St Albans City and District Hertfordshire County Council
Hertfordshire Constabulary Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service
Hertfordshire Police Authority Primary Care Trust
Hertfordshire Probation Service Hertfordshire Youth Offending Team.

In addition the Partnership will occasionally work with other agencies such as British Transport Police, First Capital Connect, Central Herts Magistrates Bench, Crown Prosecution Service, Trading Standards and Housing Associations.

The Community Safety Plan needs to contribute to local and county strategies to have maximum effect. For this reason it not only contributes to but also reflects the priorities of the Local Strategic Partnership’s Sustainable Community Strategy, the wider Hertfordshire Community Strategy, the Police Authority Plan and all of the plans of the Partnership member agencies. Full details of these plans are available on request from the Community Safety Team 01727 819305 or at www.stalbanscsp.org.uk.

Preventing and reducing crime.

The Partnership will concentrate on reducing the crimes highlighted above by continuing with initiatives and activity aimed at deterring and detecting criminals such as Operation Guardian, Operation Sentinel and Operation Crystal. The Partnership will continue to focus on targeting a small majority of offenders who carry out a large proportion of all crime. It will also continue to target resources at providing information on how to reduce the chances of becoming a victim of crime.

Preventing and reducing anti social behaviour (ASB)

St Albans City and District has some of the lowest levels of anti- social behaviour in the County and the Country. The Partnership realises that where this behaviour does occur it is very distressing for the victims. Actions to prevent ASB escalating include education, mediation and family based support and projects such as Onside football schemes and outreach projects such as the Fire Services LIFE Project. However where necessary, the Partnership will not hesitate to use enforcement measures and apply for Court Orders, injunctions and Anti Social Behaviour Orders.

A number of measures have been undertaken in previous years by the Partnership to tackle alcohol related anti social behaviour. As a result incidents of this nature are quite low in the district; however there are some pockets that require further attention and action. The Partnership will continue to target these locations to do more to reduce and prevent further incidents.

Protecting vulnerable people

The Partnership strives to protect the most vulnerable people in its communities. As part of this it will undertake activity to help a wide range of vulnerable people including victims of domestic violence, the elderly and communities at risk of becoming targeted by radical or extremist activity. The Partnership will continue to monitor any hate crimes and incidents taking swift action.

Managing Offenders

Drug misusers often turn to committing crimes acquisitive crime like shoplifting, and theft to fund their drug habit. The Partnership will continue to focus on Prolific and Other Priority Offenders (PPO’s); they have been indentified as the small minority of offenders that carry out the large proportion of crime. The Partnership will ensure that the PPO’s in the district are managed in line with the Hertfordshire PPO Strategy, including continuing to work with the County C2 project. The project targets the most persistent offenders by offering training and work to break the cycle of offending.

The Partnership will continue to educate people about drugs and alcohol in line with national campaigns and the Hertfordshire Drugs Strategy. It will continue to engage the local media and undertake work in schools and colleges. It will continue to work to share information and eliminate the supply of drugs as well as ensuring that information about help and treatment services is available to those who need it.

Promoting the work of the partnership and increasing feelings of public confidence

Hertfordshire is one of the safest counties in England and St Albans is one of the safest districts in the County. The Partnership will continue to promote public awareness of the range of activities which are being carried out to tackle crime, anti social behaviour and drug and alcohol misuse. It will engage with the public by publishing its quarterly newsletter in the local newspaper, keeping its website up to date and undertaking regular press releases about success stories and how to get involved.

The Partnership will give local communities the opportunity to indentify projects where offenders can pay back their debt to society by improving the environment through visible Community Payback Projects.

The Partnership’s Performance in 2009/10

For the period April 2008 – March 2009 crime fell by 6% or 570 fewer crimes compared with the previous year. The table below shows the performance of the Partnership against key crime types from April – Dec 09 and compares it with the same period the previous year showing that all crime is down 8.8%.

[Table not reproduced on this website]

Planning ahead

The Partnership is keen that any projects undertaken are sustainable and produce long term effects wherever possible. In addition Equality Impact Assessments will be conducted on all implemented projects which will consider all six strands of the Equalities agenda.