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Hand held devices to map ‘Grot Spots’ in Sandwell
In the West Midlands a local community partnership is fighting signal crime with the help of mobile technology and mapping software. The Safer Sandwell partnership (local council, police, fire service and other partners) has launched a project to map Sandwell’s ‘Grot Spots’, so that they have information to reduce signal crime and raise public security...
Hand held devices to map ‘Grot Spots’ in Sandwell
In the West Midlands a local community partnership is fighting signal crime with the help of mobile technology and mapping software. The Safer Sandwell partnership (local council, police, fire service and other partners) has launched a project to map Sandwell’s ‘Grot Spots’, so that they have information to reduce signal crime and raise public security...
Officers from the Safer Sandwell Partnership will be taking to the streets to track and address issues of public concern in Hill Top, Sandwell. Using innovative electronic hand held mapping devices officers will map ten categories of issues affecting the area including litter/fly tipping, graffiti, drugs, and anti-social behaviour. All fall under the heading known as "Signal Events". ‘Signal Events’ affect how people view the area they live in and have a direct impact on how safe they feel. Graffiti, dirty streets, abandoned cars and noisy neighbours have a greater impact on people’s perceptions of how safe they are because their lives are affected by their immediate environment. The new hand held equipment, which uses an ESRI (UK) Geographic Information System, will allow officers to take digital photos and to capture details of neighbourhood problems creating a new visual audit. All captured information will be shared and acted on with relevant partners. Officers, including street wardens and PCSOs began conducting survey during June at Hill Top. Over the coming weeks more Sandwell neighbourhoods will be subject to this visual audit to provide an assessment of the area. Follow-up assessments are planned to review how successful any interventions have been, and what improvements have been made. This new initiative will allow the Safer Sandwell Partnership to continue to learn what is most effective in addressing public concerns. member for Community Safety said, “Once again we are at the forefront of developments in community safety, making the most of technology to help us target our resources as effectively as possible. We are seeing our joint working pay dividends in Sandwell where our drive for cleaner safer stronger communities is a top priority.” Chief Superintendent Paul Scarrott, chair of the Safer Sandwell Partnership Executive added, “Working together with partners and the public is essential and tackling problems together at a neighbourhood level is our number one priority.” “Crime is continuing to fall steadily in Sandwell, however we recognise that the fear of crime does not equally reflect this trend. Issues such as litter and graffiti can often fuel people’s fears.The introduction of these hand-held devices is vital and will complement the work that is already being conducted by the neighbourhood teams that were introduced in April.” “The assessment will increase partnership work and visibility in our neighbourhoods.We also hope to get the community involved by training people such as street champions, community leaders and neighbourhood watch co-ordinators so they can assist with the walkabout in their neighbourhoods. “This system will enhance inter-agency partnerships by bringing prioritised information to the attention of key partners, resulting in improved responsiveness of public services where they are most needed, to reduce fear of crime and improve quality of life so that residents of North Sandwell feel the difference.” Keep Britain Tidy, West Midlands Director, Mark Vickerstaff said. "It sounds simple, but you can’t deal with the problems that dog our community properly until you know exactly what and where they are. This is why every year Keep Britain Tidy analyses the streets to see what is really plaguing the nation. "It’s great to see the same thing happening in Sandwell. By getting the community and different organisations involved everyone can really pull together to identify problems and find the best way to tackle them." Sorcha Kennedy, Public Safety Team, ESRI (UK), the project’s Geographic Information Solutions provider commented on the project, stating, “This project illustrates just how much geography really matters in improving the security of our neighbourhoods. The ability to record geographic information about signal crime efficiently and in real time using mobile technology, will enable West Midlands partnership to build a database which can be used to find ways of reducing these types of criminal activity and making residents feel safer."
An ESRI Geographic Information System is loaded on to mobile PDA devices. Local council street wardens and police community safety officers will use the devices to log signal crimes and take digital photos. Councillor Derek Rowley, Cabinet member for Community Safety has commented, "Once again we are at the forefront of developments in community safety, making the most of technology to help us target our resources as effectively as possible."
National targets for reducing crime and anti-social behaviour need to be underpinned by neighbourhood approaches by all local services delivering community safety. To do this well, good multi-agency reporting systems and up-to-date information about problem areas are needed. Making communities safer requires agencies to combine the knowledge and information of frontline workers at neighbourhood level.
(AC National Community Safety Report - May 2006).
‘Signal Events’. The key idea of Signal Events is that some incidents and issues present or perceived in a neighbourhood function as warning signals to people. These signals warn about the distribution of perceived risks to security in everyday life. Some events, incidents, crimes and behaviours are thus held to matter more than others in shaping the public’s collective risk perceptions. A signal crime is any criminal incident that causes change in the public’s behaviour and/or beliefs about their security A signal disorder is an act that breaches situated conventions of social order and signifies the presence of other risks. They can be social, physical or environmental in nature. A Signal Event comprises one or more of these signals. How does this perspective differ? A ‘perspective’ is ‘a way of seeing’, and this provides an innovative way of interpreting how the public sees and understands problems of crime, environmental crime, anti-social behaviour and disorder. It suggests a potential for targeting partnership resources to those incidents & problems that matter most to the public in a particular neighbourhood. As these Signal Events can disproportionately affect people’s sense of security, identifying and tackling them presents a real opportunity to make neighbourhoods feel safer. What makes a signal?
All signals are made up of three parts:
1. The expression is the incident that is the focus of a member of the public’s concerns. For example, if someone refers to a mugging or vandalism of a bus shelter, then this is the expression.
2. The content refers to the meaning that the expression has for the person. In respect of signal crimes and signal disorders, the content is a sense of being ‘at risk’ in some way that is signified by the presence of the crime or disorder referenced in the expression.
3. The effect is the change that is caused by the expression and its content. Signals cause changes in how people think, how they feel and/or how they behave. An example of how these concepts can be employed for analytical purposes is that someone may say that they ‘saw a mugging’ (expression), that this caused them to ‘perceive a risk to their safety’ (content) and as a consequence ‘I avoid that location’ (effect).
In order for a signal to be classed as being present, then an expression content and effect must be identified. If any of these are missing then the incident is not a signal, and is functioning as ‘background noise’. Unlike previous approaches that have concentrated upon explaining fear of crime, the University of Surrey research has found there to be a variety of risks and effects attached by members of the public to Signal Events.
The effects can be grouped together in terms of whether they change how people think, feel or behave. What are the key findings Based upon extensive and detailed research in a number of different sites across England, a number of key national and local findings have started to emerge, including: The public’s sense of being ‘at risk’ is not determined solely by the ‘volume’ of incidents or criminal offending in a neighbourhood, but also the ‘impact’ that single events have upon their collective risk perceptions. Levels of concern about safety are profoundly shaped by the presence of incivilities and disorder in a neighbourhood. Indeed, the research suggests that in some areas, levels of ASB, disorder etc are more influential than crime in shaping perceived risk. Environmental disorders such as litter, fly tipping and graffiti often feature as signal events, considered by the public as priorities for agency intervention and problem-solving. Perceptions of risk can and do vary considerably by neighbourhood, and different signal events function as causes of insecurity in different locations. Perceptions of risk will vary according to gender, age and community. Innovative means of effective engagement will start to capture signals from ‘hard to reach’ groups. Perceptions of risk will also vary over time in the same neighbourhood.As one signal event is tackled or reduced, people will ‘re-calibrate’ in identifying their current key concerns and priorities. This requires repeated meaningful consultation and feedback to impact effectively upon signal events. Traditional consultation (such as an annual postal survey) will therefore not keep pace with citizen priorities. Joint tasking in Sandwell The Sandwell Partnership has developed tasking arrangements across the Borough as part of its broader neighbourhood management and neighbourhood policing strategy. The tasking model is consistent with the Home Office National Intelligence Model (NIM) that is increasingly being used by UK Community Safety Partnerships. The tasking structure & arrangements across Sandwell are designed to provide a simple mechanism for partner agencies & other organisations to work jointly, to take forward actions to address crime, anti-social behaviour and other environmental problems. Agencies share information and intelligence, acting upon citizen concerns to prioritise joint responses. Shared problem-solving and complementary deployment of people and resources bring rich opportunities to address repeated and particular problems. Mapping problems is a key way to centre in on certain areas within neighbourhoods.The West Midlands is a leading UK region in using crime-mapping techniques in this way. Evidence of problem locations allow targeted interventions, and identify solutions and further work in a constant process of evidenced review and analysis. The tasking process enables public services in Sandwell to better address communities concerns and priorities and work more closely with local people. The aim to deliver services at a local level is critical to providing public reassurance and reducing the fear of crime. People need to be safe and to feel safe. Tackling local crime, anti-social behaviour and environmental problems requires a broad range of services to be involved in the three stages of the tasking process at Borough,Town and Neighbourhood level. The Safer Sandwell Task Group has been operating for over 12 months to tackle all issues of crime and anti-social behaviour. The group has achieved some notable successes and it has demonstrated to be an effective model for agencies to work together.
