The UK police body Police Crime Prevention Initiatives (Police CPI) says that it will be providing another round of support to the Government’s second round of its Safer Streets Fund.
The £20m Fund covering England and Wales is for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and councils to spend on crime hotspot areas. The authorities point to minor strategic changes such as allowing local authority led bids. A maximum of £432,000 grant funding per successful bid includes a requirement for a 20 per cent matched funding contribution towards the bid, which can be provided as a financial contribution, or the equivalent of 20pc in resourcing costs, such as staff/officer time. Bidders can use the matched funding contributions for a wider range of supplementary activity to their bid, such as officer resource in a hotspot.
Police CPI says it can provide technical guidance to help PCCs, councils and police designing out crime officers (DOCOs) deliver on four neighbourhood crime types – burglary, robbery, theft from the person, vehicle crime. Safer Streets Fund 2021-22 allows investment into commercial and non-residential areas as well, such as car parks and city centres. Wider acquisitive crime types (such as shoplifting and bike theft) will be considered as secondary outcomes, as will the likes of anti-social behaviour, violence, drug and alcohol related crime.
Three priority bids per PCC area can be submitted, regardless of the lead bidder. PCCs will decide on prioritisation and be required to sign off any council-led bids. The deadline for bids is midnight on March 25. Bidders will be informed whether they are successful by the end of May 2021.
Police CPI support for the Fund includes five ‘How to’ crime prevention guides, peer reviews of 15 police forces approach to acquisitive crime prevention and ad hoc advice to forces having difficulties with delivering specific interventions.
Jon Cole, Chief Operating Officer, Police CPI, said: “I am delighted that we can continue to support PCCs, local authorities and police forces in their delivery of the Safer Streets Fund bids”.
For the updated Safer Streets Fund crime prevention toolkit visit the ‘what works‘ part of the College of Policing website. And for details about applying to the Safer Streets Fund visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/safer-streets-fund-application-process.
The 2020-21 Safer Streets Fund provided £25m funding to 35 PCCs to invest in a range physical situational crime prevention measures, such as home security, alley-gating, CCTV, street lighting, training community wardens or setting up Neighbourhood Watch Schemes across 52 high crime areas.
Home Secretary Priti Patel hailed the Home Office exceeding its own target to recruit 6,000 additional police officers by March 2021.
She said: “Keeping our streets is my absolute priority and many of these new officers are already on our streets helping to fight the coronavirus pandemic, and for that they get my huge thanks. These new officers, on top of further funding to tackle crimes such as burglary, robbery and vehicle crime will ensure the police have the powers, tools and resources they need to cut crime and make you feel safer in your community.”
