CENTRAL Hampshire Police have joined forces with several agencies to support the Constabulary's Crime Reduction Environment Week (CREW) in the Bordon area.
The initiatives were launched countywide in April and are designed to clean up the environment, target offenders and implement crime prevention measures in target areas.
"The idea is to focus on an area which has issues with antisocial behaviour, as well as aesthetic and environmental issues, and go in with a multi-agency approach to co-ordinate all the work. This should have a high impact, not only on law and order but other social issues," Sergeant Karen Fisher said.
This is the first CREW to be held in East Hampshire but if it has the desired success it will become a quarterly event. The initiative was started by Southampton police where it has already become a monthly event because of its popularity, and it has now been taken on board in other areas within the county. A number of different agencies have lent their support to the campaign including environmental health, DVLA, DRUM Housing, EHDC, Hampshire County Council, fire and rescue, trading standards, probation and Mill Chase School.
"I anticipate that 10 police officers a day, 40 to 50 people from different agencies, plus 30 students from Mill Chase School will work at land improvement," said Sgt Fisher. She believed it was good that a local school was involved with the week because it would show the youngsters in a positive light. "The pupils will redevelop an area of waste land and turn it into something pleasant, they have even offered to maintain it.," she said. "It's a really good result because rather than the pupils being seen as yobs who are causing problems, they are seen as youths who are putting back into the community."
Mill Chase teacher Neil Pittaway, who is in charge of children who have been recruited to help, also believes that it is a great initiative. "It is an absolutely fantastic opportunity for our students to portray a positive image of young people which so often is negative," he said. "There is a big push nowadays to make young people active citizens within the local community and this is an ideal community project."
Local police have donated a lot of its resources to support the CREW. They have been highly visible throughout the week with the ASBO (Anti-Social Behaviour Order) officer and police dogs accompanied by drug officers attending Mill Chase School to speak to pupils. Officers have patrolled the Forest Centre all week and a CCTV van has been parked in the nearby carpark with officers ready to answer the public's questions. The van has also been used in traffic operations to record motoring offenses.
"This area was specifically picked due to the dispersal order, because the problems had dissipated and we have found that the problems have slowly but surely started coming back. So we decided that it was an ideal initiative in this area to follow on from that," Sgt Fisher explained.
"Unfortunately the police have received criticism from people who believed that when the dispersal order finished we have done nothing more. But we have been preparing this since February and there will be follow-up work to see what has done and what else needs to be done."
Whitehill's Sergeant Rick Davidson was pleased to see the various agencies come together. He felt it emphasised that crime can be dealt with by different agencies and it would improve the quality of community life.
He added: "This week is about building bridges with the community and other agencies. Once this week is over there will be a whole series of plans in place to improve communication within the community."