Community Safety

Community Safety - Core Activities of the Group

The principal activities of the Group are:

To help ensure that members of the community are aware of current threat levels with regard to public safety
To help prevent individuals from becoming victims of crime or anti-social behaviour by ensuring that, through the activities of the Society, community awareness of advice (which may be based on that given by the emergency services and others such as local council authorities, Neighbourhood Watch, The Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, Trading Standards, voluntary groups and social services) is enhanced.

The main areas of concern are:

Burglaries, robberies, thefts, vandalism, anti-social behaviour and assaults
Telephone and online scammers and fraudsters (all levels of threat including international)
Consumer protection, particularly with regard to cold calling/door-to-door salesmen
Road safety and traffic discipline

In order to achieve this every two months the Group collates information from divers sources and summarises it in the form of a report to the Committee; others are then asked to ensure that relevant content from these reports finds its way to the Society's members via the Society's Newsletter, the website, the Chairman's Email Newsletter and the Society's meetings

To provide the community with news of the activities of the local police, the Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service and other emergency services; to liaise with these services and with Hertfordshire's Police and Crime Commissioner as appropriate

To promote information regarding safety in the home with particular concern for the needs of the elderly and other vulnerable members of the community

To monitor crime in the town from limited independent sources in order to compare police statistics with public perceptions (the Crime Survey for England and Wales does likewise at the national level); this addresses concern at the national level, expressed with increasing frequency, that some crimes may be seriously underreported.

Pete and Sandie get married at Hendon Town hall on saturday 12th Oct 2019

2020/21 Annual Report

Looking back

Looking back over the last year, crimes in Harpenden showed a reduction over the previous year with anti-social behaviour and violence being the most prolific perhaps due to lock down.

Looking forward

Things to be aware of include:

Insurance mis-selling on home appliances saying your warranty has run out.
Cloned telephone numbers calling you that appear to be legitimate saying such things as you have outstanding NI payments and unpaid tax bills.
Door to door traders offering maintenance or garden work testing peoples vulnerability.
Try before you buy fish seller who then charges a lot for inferior products.
Keyless car thefts when technology is used to read and duplicate them. Keep them in a special scan proof location.
The Herts Police with extra funding available plan to increase police numbers by 65 to 2,267 to use as a “prevention First” model.

Police Commissioner David Lloyd’s priorities are:

Put victims first

Keep crime low

Protect local policing

Increase officer numbers

Keep tax low.

Local police priorities are fly tipping, Anti-social behaviour (in parks) and speeding

Paul Gardiner