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Enfield has suffered a large increase in domestic burglary
as have many other parts of London
In 2008 / 09 we had 24% increase in domestic burglary
and that actually increased further by 10% during the
following April so we knew we had to do something quite dramatic
we had to move away from some of the additional policing
activities, that might be applied in regular circumstances
well local residents were very concerned
they felt as though they were seeing a lot of burglaries
reported in the press and that certainly was the case
a lot of people had said to us that they knew people
who had been burgled, that they were frightened
about being burgled and people who had been victims
of domestic burglary, so were very concerned about becoming
repeat victims. There was a considerable amount of analysis
looking at the three sides of the problem as a triangle
the offender, the victim and the location.
we had some difficulty with the offender side of it
the traditional methods had been tried
but hadn't been as successful as we would have hoped
therefore we looked more closely at the victim and location sides.
But we also tried to widen that analysis
so that we had a better understanding about
the lifestyles of the victims for example
were people out working during the day
was there a reduced amount of natural surveillances
as a result of that, also what commonality there was
in terms of the properties, so we knew for example that
a lot of properties were being attacked from the rear
so we were looking at alley gating schemes for example
for a solution to that.
The victims very often were professional people
out at work, therefore they would be away from the property
during the day and come back at the end
to find their property had been burgled
that was the same with many of the neighbours therefore
there was very little natural surveillance
there weren't many people around to see what was going on
during the day
The problems taking place along the A10 particularly
which is obviously a very convenient transport route
through the borough
and the types of properties that surrounded that
tended to be those properties with a maze of
alleyways behind them, so not only were they very
quiet during the day, little natural surveillance,
but they also afforded a quick and easy exit route
for any would be offenders.
The solution looked at working with the local authority
and with a number of other partnership agencies
so that we could bring a number of different strengths
to the problem, for example we had a locksmith
we had a crime prevention survey, 3000 households
were visited, a 1000 had actual crime prevention
interventions put in place, so they had locks fitted,
additional trellis put up in gardens,
we had 88 alley gating schemes put in to reduce
the possibility of a rear access burglary.
What we tried to do to ensure that we were getting
the absolute best value for our money was to look at
other things which may be factors, so an environmental
audit of the area, to try and see whether or not we could
cut back shrubs and clear up litter, reduce that broken window
feeling about an area particularly, and increase
natural surveillance and additionally we were also training
people who were going into people's homes
to have a safeguarding hat on as well while they were in there
so if they felt people were at risk or would benefit from
another multi agency service, they were also trained and felt
equipped to be able to talk about it.
The real question was how would this impact on the long term?
What we were trying to do was tackle long term burglary hotspots
we did achieve considerable reductions in the areas
we targetted of 46.7% in those specific streets
that we targetted and they have now gone from being
areas which had sustained increasing burglary problems
over a number of years to now actually seeing reductions.
It really was a genuine partnership target, that we were
absolutely clear about what we wanted to achieve,
and through gaining a far clearer understanding
about the nature of the problem and not deviating from
from the line we set out and the methods we agreed,
we were able to ensure that when we did apply interventions,
that we got absolutely maximum value for money and the
benefits for our local community were fairly impressive.
Part of the assessment as to whether it has been
sustainable in the long term, we continue to check on those
properties that have received the interventions specifically
those that have had the alley gating.
One of the issues about alley gating is that it needs
the agreement of initially it was all but now it's reduced
to 98% of the residents in that area.
That obviously raises their awareness, the fact that police
have gone and spoken to them about problems in the areas
and now they have a heightened awareness of the risks
and they now know what to do about it, so that they lock the gates
and we go back and check that they are still using
... still using the examples and advice that we had given them
on how to prevent themselves from being victims of burglary.
so we continually go back to these people to
confirm that it is still working and still being used.
If it was to stop working, stop being used then we
would be in a position to go back to them.
would be in a position to go back to them.