'Bobby on the beat' experiment abandoned
Discussion
ananova said:
'Bobby on the beat' experiment abandoned
An experiment to give a village a dedicated "bobby on the beat" has been abandoned after people's fear of crime increased.
The Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust paid £25,000 a year for an extra 24 hours a week policing at New Earswick, near York, under an arrangement with North Yorkshire Police.
The aim of the three-year project was to increase people's sense of security through a visible police presence in the village of 1,000 homes.
But the experiment has been scrapped a year early as an initial drop in crime by 5% in the first year led to it almost doubling in the second.
Much of the increase related to less-serious offences and happened at a time when crime was rising in surrounding neighbourhoods.
Researchers at the University of Leeds found a rise in the number of residents who said they felt unsafe outside after dark and a marked increase in dissatisfaction with local policing from 30% to 40%.
Professor Adam Crawford, co-author of the report, said: "One of the key lessons to be learned from this well-intentioned attempt to make residents feel more secure is that trying to tackle local order problems through policing and security alone can have the opposite effect.
"In New Earswick, the additional policing initiative was undermined from the start by a widening gap between what the police were able to deliver and the heightened expectations of local people."
Jacquie Dale, of JRHT which manages the village, said: "Residents wanted to see more 'bobbies' on the beat. They wanted to feel secure in the knowledge that if a crime or anti-social behaviour incident occurred that a community police officer would quickly know what was going on and have a good idea who was responsible."
Geoff Bunce, chairman of New Earswick Residents Forum, was one of a group who recommended the experiment be abandoned early. He said: "The Residents Forum wholeheartedly supported the idea of community policing to combat nuisance crime and help alleviate the fear of crime. Unfortunately the reality did not live up to the expectation for a number of reasons."
Am I missing something here? They put an extra copper on the beat, and because crime (and fear thereof) went UP in the general area, which it would've done extra copper or not, they then scrapped the idea? Where on earth is the logic in that?
Proof that the British public are a bunch of idiots.
Proof that the British public are a bunch of idiots.
gemini said:
One less for me to supervise 
Job gets easier - yeh right! NYYork
Are you making the point that Rudolph Giuliani (sp?) had the right idea in New York? As I understand it crime dropped massively after a very-high-profile-policing-zero-tolerance-style campaign.
New Yorkers loved it. Shame we can't manage the same.
Or maybe we can?
Mrs Fish said:
'Bobby on the beat' experiment abandoned
An experiment to give a village a dedicated "bobby on the beat" has been abandoned after people's fear of crime increased.
The Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust paid £25,000 a year for an extra 24 hours a week policing at New Earswick, near York, under an arrangement with North Yorkshire Police.
The aim of the three-year project was to increase people's sense of security through a visible police presence in the village of 1,000 homes.
But the experiment has been scrapped a year early as an initial drop in crime by 5% in the first year led to it almost doubling in the second.
Much of the increase related to less-serious offences and happened at a time when crime was rising in surrounding neighbourhoods.
Researchers at the University of Leeds found a rise in the number of residents who said they felt unsafe outside after dark and a marked increase in dissatisfaction with local policing from 30% to 40%.
Professor Adam Crawford, co-author of the report, said: "One of the key lessons to be learned from this well-intentioned attempt to make residents feel more secure is that trying to tackle local order problems through policing and security alone can have the opposite effect.
"In New Earswick, the additional policing initiative was undermined from the start by a widening gap between what the police were able to deliver and the heightened expectations of local people."
Jacquie Dale, of JRHT which manages the village, said: "Residents wanted to see more 'bobbies' on the beat. They wanted to feel secure in the knowledge that if a crime or anti-social behaviour incident occurred that a community police officer would quickly know what was going on and have a good idea who was responsible."
Geoff Bunce, chairman of New Earswick Residents Forum, was one of a group who recommended the experiment be abandoned early. He said: "The Residents Forum wholeheartedly supported the idea of community policing to combat nuisance crime and help alleviate the fear of crime. Unfortunately the reality did not live up to the expectation for a number of reasons."
News item on this had the locals saying that though they paid extra for more policing, the cop was rarely there because he was constantly called away to, "more urgent" matters.
Tax payer screwed again
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