UK Home Secretary Commendates CTK Customer, Merseyside Police for Reducing Street Crime
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
UK Home Secretary Commendates CTK Customer, Merseyside Police for Reducing Street Crime
AUSTIN, TEXAS February 18, 2003 :The Home Secretary announced a Street Crime Initiative on 17 March 2002. The initiative involves the 10 police force areas which accounted for over 80% of recorded robbery offences in 2001/02. On 24 April, the Prime Minister said that, as a result of additional measures being taken under the initiative, the problem will have been brought under control, by the end of September. Final statistics
to the end of September were published for the period up to the end of August. Of the Ten Force Crime Initiative areas (street crime is concentrated on a few, largely urban areas; these ten police forces deal with 83 per cent of all robbery in England and Wales)
Merseyside received commendation as only one of the ten to achieve necessary documenting and reporting benchmarks for the Home Office:
Ten Force Crime Initiative Areas for England and Wales
Avon and Somerset
Greater Manchester
Lancashire
Merseyside
Metropolitan Police
Nottinghamshire
South Yorkshire
Thames Valley
West Midlands
West Yorkshire
Community TechKnowledge, Inc. (CTK), a U.S.-based Application
Service Provider, announced a UK Government (Home Office) pilot in May, 2002, that was to identify best practices in street robbery prevention and intervention across agencies for the Merseyside Police, Liverpool.
The Merseyside Police established a “joint intelligence group” to work with Home Office guidelines that was represented by each of the thirteen agencies responsible for combating robbery and providing services to offenders and victims. Specific strategy
points were established for the initiative:
• Clear, five year targets by the police force and local Crime & Disorder reduction partnership to reduce the crimes which most concern the public – vehicle crime, domestic burglary and street robbery;
• Every Crime & Disorder reduction partnership to submit a progress report
• A new national Crime Reduction Taskforce bringing together senior figures in the police service and local government to lead the drive for improved performance at local and national level;
• A new regional rime Reduction Director in every Government Office for the Regions to scrutinise and support local Crime & Disorder reduction partnerships;
• Crime statistics for every police division to be published for the first time to enable the public to compare crime rates for individual towns and cities, as well as police forces;
• A national review of crime reduction performance by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, in collaboration with the Audit Commission and the Home Office;
• An extensive programme of support for crime fighting partnerships, including training courses, regional seminars, consultancy support and a new crime reduction website;
• More support for the police in the form of technological advances and extra resources; To handle inter-agency communication, record-keeping and reporting for the initiative,
Merseyside selected Community TechKnowledge to provide a database system that they could use to track and share selected information. Kathryn Engelhardt-Cronk, President and CEO of Community TechKnowledge, said: “We applaud the Department’s
decision to select our ASP solution to help solve their very challenging crosscommunication and database requirements. It will give them affordable access to the latest technology without the risks, costs and administrative responsibilities associated
with developing and maintaining their own IT infrastructure. Finally, we believe that their decision will free Merseyside to focus resources on a very important core pilot mission: preventing street robberies.”
Please contact Sgt. Gary Fairbrother, of the Merseyside Police Department, for more information:
Phone: 151 777 4151
E-mail: SGT.Gary.J.Fairbrother@merseyside.police.uk
