Crime Reduction - Helping to Reduce Crime in Your Area

Criminal damage update

Updates on criminal damage related work and developments:

NEW 2008 Tilley Award winner announced.

• Click this link to read details of the 2008 Tilley Award winners.

NEW Transcript of on-line chat on Criminal Damage to Vehicles

• Click this link to read the transcript 

NEW Operation Community Challenge

• Report on an ongoing initiative to combat criminal damage in the East Riding. Click here to read.

NEW Criminal Damage Initiative 2006-2007 summary reports.

• In 2006/07 the Home Office funded 10 areas to develop innovative approaches to tackling criminal damge. Click here to read the individual summaries.

Not In My Neighbourhood Week: 15-21 October

• This week aims to foster a sense of empowerment in local communities and raise awareness of crime reduction work in your area. A toolkit is available with further details and advice on how to take part.

Seasonal Crime Calendar

• The Seasonal Crime Calendar highlights national trends in seasonal crime and gives details of related online action sessions planned.

Neighbourhood Fix-It Website Launched by MySociety

• Neighbourhood Fix-It is a website where people can report, view or discuss local problems like graffiti, fly-tipping, broken paving slabs or street lighting. The website was developed by MySociety in conjunction with the Young Foundation.

Daring to Damage

• Lancashire University's Applied Social Science Unit for Research and Evaluation (ASSURE) have produced a report Daring to Damage which investigates young people's motivations to commit acts of criminal damage in the North West of England. The report was commissioned by Lancashire's Strategic Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership.

Designing Vandal Free Schools

• Researchers at Coventry University and the University of Northampton have won a grant to investigate participatory design practices in the Building Schools for the Future Programme. Read the article in HERO to find out more.

Northumbria Police Campaign

• Northumbria Police is urging the public to join them in the fight against criminal damage. Advice to the public on preventative measures and posters can be viewed on their website.

EGov Monitor's Conversation with the 'Operation BusTag' project team

• Operation Bus Tag targeted criminal damage to the London bus network. In some areas the clear up rate for criminal damage tripled and over 1200 people were arrested and identified in the first 26 months of operation. Read the conversation to find out more.

 Criminal damage conference

• The Home Office and environmental group, EnCams, recently held a conference on criminal damage. Attended by over 150 people, delegates discussed ideas and experience on reducing levels of this crime.

Conditional caution reparative work pilots

• The Office for Criminal Justice Reform, Respect Taskforce and Probation Service are working together to increase opportunities for unpaid reparative work conditions in seven pilot areas of England and Wales. It is expected that an unpaid work condition is most likely to be attached where the offence is criminal damage to property. The pilots are running from January to December 2007 and will be fully evaluated.

Budget: Young people to deliver community justice in UK's first youth peer panels

• The Chancellor has announced £487,000 funding for the country's first restorative peer panel project for young people which will be based in a new Restorative Justice Centre in Preston and run by the Lancashire Resotrative Partnership Group, led by NACRO, the crime reduction charity, and Preston City Council. The project has potential to work with young criminal damage offenders. See the press release on the NACRO website for more information.

'Operation Bustag' wins 2007 problem solving award

• The Problem Solving Award is a collaboration between the Metropolitan Police Authority, Metropolitan Police Service and the Safer London Foundation which celebrates initiatives that develop problem orientated policing techniques. Operation Bustag addressed criminal damage on the bus network and resulted in an improved clear up rate and over 1000 arrests.

Operation Mullion Interview

• Teachernet interviewed Hampshire Constabulary and staff at Mayfield School about Operation Mullion, the partnership based criminal damage reduction scheme that won last year's Tilley Awards. View the webcast or transcript of the interview.

What works in Wales

• The Welsh Assembly Government website has case studies of what works to help reduce crime in Wales. Recent postings of relevance to criminal damage include Operation Gingerbread, Crime and Neighbourhood Directed Operations (CANDO) and Graffiti Hamster Van.

Last update: Wednesday, September 24, 2008