As the Government announces measures to tackle anti-social behaviour and improve prospects for high streets across the UK, here in Newcastle the team at NE1 and its business partners are ahead of the curve. NE1 is currently reviewing the success of its city-wide Business Crime Reduction Partnership launched in Newcastle last year.
Mark Sumner, Operations Manager at NE1, masterminded the launch of the Business Crime Reduction Partnership and is championing its future development. Celebrating its 1st anniversary, Mark looks back at what has been achieved and the plans for the year ahead.
We have had an extremely successful first year with NE1’s Business Crime Reduction Partnership.
From a standing start we now have 115 businesses from many sectors enrolled in the partnership. We also have a host of notable successes under our belt. The partnership has been quick to gather momentum helping to cut crime and tackle anti-social behaviour.
By building and sharing knowledge between partners we have been able to identify potential offenders, share information on their whereabouts, and stop theft happening. By gathering this information we have also been able to identify known individuals and help bring them to justice. Our plans for the year ahead are to build on this success, enlist more businesses, and strengthen the network.
The scheme operates on similar lines to a neighbourhood watch. Members are given access to an online forum to record incidents, share information, and raise alerts to help prevent, and reduce crime in the city centre, as well as improving safety for businesses, staff, and visitors. It has helped build a sense of community amongst members and given them direct input into the running of the partnership.
As well as logging incidences of crime and anti-social behaviour, businesses can review information on offenders operating in the city centre and keep abreast of patterns of criminal behaviour and activity. The platform alerts businesses to the presence of offenders in the city before they go into shops, or other business venues, so companies can manage the risks appropriately.
We first launched the partnership after feedback from businesses. An on-street environment survey conducted in 2021 showed that almost 90% of businesses questioned said they wouldn’t report minor incidents, including shoplifting and anti-social behaviour, because it was too big a drain on their resources, and they lacked confidence that the police would do anything. The survey showed that the retail sector in particular felt they had no-one to turn to for help and support and that the city was a soft target for retail crime. We were alarmed by this and were determined to do something about it, so we came up with the partnership idea to give businesses a streamlined and efficient way to report crime and disorder.
The scheme has allowed us to build an accurate picture of the scale of the problem, and to work with the police and local council to collectively lobby for additional support. By having data on incidents and their frequency, the police and NE1 Street Team can allocate the necessary resource to the appropriate areas.
We have gathered an eminent steering group of members and partners including Northumbria Police, Newcastle City Council and key partners including M&S, Primark, Greggs, Nexus, JD Sports and the Theatre Royal who meet quarterly to review activity and ensure that the partnership is on track.
Whilst it is difficult to quantify the impact we have made in our first year because figures concerning the scale of the problem had not previously been collated, we have had notable success including prosecutions of persistent offenders and issuing anti-social behaviour and legal orders prohibiting known individuals from coming into the city centre. One test case involved a notorious and prolific offender who regularly shoplifted at stores across the city. We secured a community protection order against this individual barring them from entering the retail core. This has had a hugely positive impact on stores which were regularly and routinely targeted for theft, sometimes several times a day.
Everyone has a role to play, including businesses, and can do their bit to help make the city a safer more welcoming place. Collectively we must strive for improvements and help the police and local authority to understand scale of the issue and impact it has on our city.
Thanks to our success, we have also been in talks with Newcastle City Council about appointing someone to monitor CCTV cameras across the city centre. Having someone pro-actively monitoring the whole network, including the Metro. By monitoring intelligence we have more chance of stopping crime happening.
Another major boost to the partnership is imminent. NE1 is set to allocate extra funding to its Street Ranger team to fund the recruitment of two additional Rangers. Increasing our on-street presence will enable us to respond to more business call-outs and boost our patrols around the city.
Next year we want to build on our success and expand the partnership. We are keen to explore ways to extend the programme to include other industry sectors. To date the focus has inevitably been on retail because the cost of crime is quantifiable and evident, but all businesses can benefit from insight and knowledge into criminal patterns and city-wide on-street issues.
Rest assured Newcastle is a very safe city, but like all others has its problems. Thanks to NE1’s Business Crime Reduction Partnership we can tackle and minimise these as a community and make the city an even safer place to live, visit and do business