Dover and Yeovil are the first towns in the UK to receive a new award, which marks standards for Business Crime Reduction Partnerships (BCRPs).
Both towns have radio systems for use by member companies, including retailers and pubs, to report incidents, and are linked with their police CCTV control rooms. They share information to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour in support of their daytime and night-time economies.
Police Crime Prevention Initiatives, which works for UK police, became the accreditation body for BCRPs last year. Accreditation is based on a set of standards as created over the last 24 months, led by Martin Blackwell, former Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Town and City Management and including people from the police’s National Business Crime Centre (NBCC), the BCRP sector and business.
These standards cover good practice and professionalism, such as functioning in an ethical manner and within the law, management practices and procedures such as membership agreements, data security and compliance with the law. They include having up to date and accessible information for members and partner bodies.
Dover Partnership Against Crime (DPAC) has 120 members, and tackles crime in Dover, Deal and Sandwich. It won a Home Office Safer Shopping Award in 2002 and a Safer Business Award three years later.
Graham Tutthill, Chairman of DPAC, said: “We have a good history and have been very successful. We have been very active in combatting crime and anti-social behaviour. We are delighted that we’ve passed the assessment and been accredited and we look forward to a new chapter in our lives going on from here,” he said.
Yeovil Crime Reduction Team (YCRT) has 170 members and covers Yeovil, Chard, Crewkerne and Sherborne. Over the last four years, they have established ways of supporting individuals who come to their attention and to signpost them to support agencies to help break their cycle of offending.
YCRT’s Co-ordinator, Gareth Williams, said: “I am passionate about wanting to make Yeovil a better and safer place for people to come. All the organisations that we work with are all working to this goal. This is very much an award for the team.”
Guy Collyer, who has oversight of BCRP accreditation for PCPI, said: “The achievements of Dover and Yeovil are highly commendable. These are towns with BCRPs that are dedicated to reducing crime and keep people safe.”
BCRPs are encouraged to contact one of the two assessing bodies working with the NBCC, authorised to carry out assessments leading to accreditation. They are the National Association of Business Crime Partnerships (NABCP) and Revive & Thrive. Dover was assessed by NABCP, Yeovil by Revive & Thrive.
Some background
Business Crime Reduction Partnerships are subscription-based, business-led, non-profit making groups, some lately based with Business Improvement Districts (BIDs). A bugbear for retailers and others, faced with the perhaps considerable bill for joining such partnerships around the country, is that quality of offering from a partnership will differ, town to town. But if a retailer wants to pay only to join the effective partnerships – and the ones processing data lawfully – how to tell them apart? Hence, after many years, the accreditation.
