5
Dec
2013
By Calvin at 16:13 GMT, 10 years ago
I see that the Metropolitan Police Service has launched a pilot advertising campaign designed to let local people know what police are doing in their area.
It was launched on 17 November, while I was on holiday, so I missed the start of what the Met hopes will increase local peoples’ confidence in the police.
The campaign, which uses outdoor poster advertising sites at bus stops and phone boxes for example, will be trialled in three boroughs - Islington, Lewisham and Havering.
It aims to communicate actions local police have taken to cut crime or help solve problems locally, using a mixture of borough wide, ward wide and street level messages. Borough wide messages will appear across the borough, ward wide across the ward, street level messages on or near the street concerned.
Evidence tells them that giving people very local information about police action in their area may increase the confidence they have in police. These boroughs were chosen as places where confidence in policing is lower than average.
The campaign will be independently evaluated and, if shown to be successful, will be rolled out more widely across London.
TCPW Comment How many times have I heard the phrase ‘...and what are the police going to do about it? That’s what I’d like to know’. Well it seems that for some of you, you’re going to jolly well know!
I really like this idea. Having served in the Met for so many years it was frustrating that only a few people outside the service actually got to hear about our efforts. But, of course, this is more than about confidence. It’s obvious that people who are more confident in their local police will want to do more to help and will be much more inclined to report problems as they occur.
And whilst I applaud the Met for this initiative and hope that it meets all its objectives we who live in London don’t have to wait for the post action posters to be pasted up at the local bus shelter. Your local police need your help and support now. So do ring in that information you’ve been sitting on, do practice a reasonable degree of crime prevention and please think about joining or starting up a Neighbourhood Watch or maybe offering your time as a volunteer or a special. We must remember that the police are the public with just a few extra powers and a uniform. They police with our consent, but need our help to be really effective.
Source Metropolitan Police: http://content.met.police.uk/Campaign/localpolicing
Volunteering for the Metropolitan Police: http://www.metpolicecareers.co.uk/specials/volunteering.html
