In our April print magazine we featured community safety accreditation by police.
One force, Cleveland, has accredited Hartlepool Council-run wardens.
Such accredited staff have extra powers, short of the police power of arrest. Wardens manager, Ted Morgan, said: “Persuasion and the amicable resolution of problems would always be our preferred approach, but the extra powers will give us another option in certain situations.”
Meanwhile the Safer Hartlepool Partnership last year launched a Crime Net scheme, to tackle shop theft in the town centre. Several shoplifters have been banned from stores signed up. Mike Gibson, co-ordinator, said: “Hartlepool is no longer the shoplifting capital of the Cleveland Police Force area. That is now Middlesbrough, although the town still has a theft problem, but year on year the number of incidents is reducing.”
