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Tackling the Fear of Crime (Public Reassurance)
NEWSFLASH: The Safer Hastings Partnership has won one of the Home Office's prestigious Tilley Awards for its work to tackle the Fear of Crime. For more details about this work, scroll down. Or to read the news article, click here...
It has been recognised for some time that people’s fear of crime is often disproportionate to the reality of crime trends in their town or city.
Hastings is no exception. Despite significant reductions in crime in our town over the last five years, survey findings have shown us that public perception was not lining up with the reality that crime is falling in Hastings & St Leonards.
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Over the last three years, the Safer Hastings Partnership has employed a dedicated Communications Manager to put in place a range of measures to reassure our residents that we are working hard to bring crime down and to keep it falling, and to inform them of our achievements and successes.
These measures, which are detailed below, combine to make up the Partnership's robust, holistic & long-term strategy to tackle the fear of crime.
Winning one of the Home Office's 2007 Tilley Awards is a reflection of our success as a leading agency in the area of public reassurance.
If you would like a copy of the Partnership's booklet 'Tackling the Fear of Crime', click here. |
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The Problem: ‘Hell-on-Sea’ Hastings
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ONCE A popular seaside resort among wealthy Victorians, Hastings fell into decline, reaching a level of deprivation in 1994 that saw the Government grant the town ‘Assisted Area Status’.
While it is true that Hastings has suffered high crime rates, the media spotlight honing in on the town’s socio-economic challenges and serious incidents has exacerbated the perception that Hastings is crime-ridden and unsafe.
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The Solution: Communication
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THE SHP embarked upon the huge task of tackling the fear of crime three years ago, in February 2004, when the Government Office for the South East (GOSE) allocated funding for a full-time, dedicated Communications Manager.
The funding was provided for this post in recognition of the fact that while partners had achieved significant reductions in crime, it was proving harder to combat the fear of crime and public perception still lagged far behind the reality.
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Four-page Newspaper Spreads
DUE TO the Hastings Observer being a major influence on public opinion in the town, it was decided that an effective approach may be to ‘fight the enemy from within’, as it were. Therefore, over the last two years, the SHP has taken out bi-monthly four-page spreads in the local newspaper.
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Community TV Network: SHP-TV
School Competitions
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IN MAY and June 2006, the Partnership ran a pilot competition with Respond, a local voluntary group for disaffected teenagers.
After this pilot, the Partnership ambitiously ran a competition across all local schools from July to December 2006, with the primary aim of engaging with young people and stimulating discussion on issues of community safety.
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Click here to read about the SHP's current schools competition |
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Website: www.saferhastings.co.uk
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ACCORDING to the Government’s National Statistics website, an estimated 13.9 million households (57%) in Great Britain could access the Internet from home between January and April 2006. The region with the highest percentage of households with Internet access in 2006 was the South East, with 66%.
Recognising the increasing popularity and accessibility of the Internet, the Partnership wanted to make information about itself and its work available online.
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Media Player, Radio Advertising, Publications & Events
To read more about the Safer Hastings Partnership's other communications projects, click here...
Results: A Reassured Public
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THE SUCCESS of individual projects is detailed on previous pages, but the Safer Hastings Partnership designed its Public Reassurance agenda so that no one project would stand alone.
Instead, to secure maximum effectiveness, each initiative would complement the others, in order that together they would provide the robust, holistic and long-term plan necessary to turn the tide of the disproportionate fear of crime experienced by residents and to undo the damage done to the town’s reputation concerning outsiders.
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Award-Winning
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Awards for the SHP’s Public Reassurance initiatives
WINNER:
Best New Media Initiative
GOSE Communication Awards October 2005
COMMENDED:
Overall Effective Communications Activity
GOSE Communication Awards October 2005
WINNER:
Best Community Site
Hastings & Rother Web Awards October 2006
SECOND:
Strategic Communications Campaign
Good Communication Awards May 2006 & June 2007
COMMENDED:
Local Authority Website of the Year
Good Communication Awards June 2007 |
SHP Communications Contacts
To find out more about the people behind the SHP's work to tackle the fear of crime, and for their contact details, click here...
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