Law & Order
Crime & Community Safety
CivicWatch
What is CivicWatch?
CivicWatch is a team within Westminster Council’s Community Protection department; a problem solving initiative that started in autumn 2003. CivicWatch is a unique partnership project involving Westminster Council, the police, CityWest Homes, London Fire Brigade and other departments within Westminster City Council and aims to support the police in reducing crime and fear of crime as well as improving community confidence by tackling anti-social behaviour, persistent environmental problems and sign posting alternatives to poor behaviour.
What can we help with?
The key elements of the programme are as follows:
- Bringing residents and the council closer together
- Responding to residents’ concerns, involving them and developing public confidence in service delivery
- Ensuring City Guardians, Metropolitan Police Safer Neighbourhoods team and CivicWatch co-ordinators work together with local communities to identify local problems and find solutions.
How we work with the police
Local CivicWatch and Safer Neighbourhoods teams meet on a weekly basis to share information and intelligence, which is based around in-depth research compiled by analysts. Resources are then deployed according to what the information reveals. Every few months a high-level accountability meeting involving the Leader of the Council, Commander of the Metropolitan Police, Directors of Council departments and key officers oversee this activity.
Knightsbridge and Belgravia safer neighbourhoods Police team:
Sergeant Gary Herrett
PC Natalie Steer
PC Dave Hicks
PC Nigel Lewis
PCSO Alexandra Bird
PCSO Loraiine O’Hara
PCSO Paul Stratford
The team is based in Belgravia Police Station and can be contacted on:-
020 8721 2422, 07920 233938 or
kightsbridge.belgravia.snt@met.police.uk
In an emergancy, always dial 999
What issues we can help with
CivicWatch supports the police in their crime reduction efforts and can assist with low level anti-social behaviour such as graffiti, noise, begging, abandoned vehicles, illegal advertising and trading, low level anti social behaviour, street cleaning and waste collections.
Safer Neighbourhoods Ward panel
CivicWatch is divided into 26 areas, to reflect the 26 Police Safer Neighbourhoods areas assigned accordingly to the boundaries of the 20 electoral wards within Westminster Council. Each CivicWatch area has a local ward panel; formed of local residents or business people. The purpose of these panels is to use available community intelligence and analysis in order to identify local priorities for action. In addition they monitor and review police and council progress to tackle these priorities. Please contact your Safer Neighbourhoods police Sergeant, Mohamed Khalil (Mohamed.Khalil@met.police.uk, 020 7161 8986) for more details on your local ward panel.
Resident consultation
CivicWatch consults regularly with different sections of the community to identify the crime, disorder and anti social behaviour issues that cause most concern in each neighbourhood. Consultation is carried out in a variety of forms: door to door, street briefings, focus groups, written appeals for information and a quarterly telephone survey. The results from these consultations are used to help select area priorities for CivicWatch officers and the Safer Neighbourhoods teams.
CivicWatch also runs a ‘CivicWatch Citizens’ project across the city, enabling residents to take more active role in community. There are currently over 700 citizens registered. CivicWatch Citizens are able to report any type of anti social behaviour and environmental problem in their area and in turn receive monthly updates on our progress in resolving them. For more information on how to become a CivicWatch Citizen call 0207 641 1007 or email CivicWatchCitizen@westminster.gov.uk.
What kind of resources we can provide
Mobile City Guardians, CCTV van, deployable mobile police taskforce, Safer Neighbourhoods police and City Inspectors.
How to contact CivicWatch
Your local CivicWatch Liaison Officer is Caroline Dyer. Caroline can be contacted on 020 7641 1085 or by emailing Caroline Dyer.
Safer Neighbourhoods police
Frequently Asked Questions about Safer Neighbourhoods
http://www.met.police.uk/saferneighbourhoods/faq.htm