Home Office Good Practice Seminars
Young People & Crime Seminar
Workshop 1
Reducing Crime Against Students: the Partnership Approach
Peck-Har Tan, Marketing Officer, Merseyside Police - Merseyside Student Victim Team
With input from:
Eddie Townsend (Marketing Assistant - Merseyside Police)
Nat Lewis (Welfare Officer for the Liverpool Guild of Students - University
of Liverpool)
Anne-Marie McGarrity (Vice President and Welfare Officer for Liverpool
Students Union - John Moores University)
Key points from the presentation
The presentation outlined the rationale, strategy and interventions behind the Merseyside Student Victim project. At all stages the project has been informed by students, from identifying the issues to consultation on language and imagery for marketing messages.
Issues of concern included: high incidence of robbery – 40% of all 18-24 year olds in Merseyside were victims of mobile phone theft; forced entry and burglary in student homes; personal safety.
Previous work on student safety had taken place in freshers' week but had not really extended beyond that. The project recognised that work had to be done year-round, with different messages to keep students interested, and to address specific problems at relevant points of the year.
Partnership working was developed to include the student unions (there are 3 universities in Merseyside); the university authorities, police, publicans and transport providers.
Involving the student unions was central to developing the project – they represent the students, can provide routes into engaging students and the project directly supports the work of Welfare Officers within the student unions.
The university authorities recognise that they have roles and responsibilities in student safety, both proactively and in their responses. One of the universities has funded a police officer to work on campus.
At all points the project team has been aware of the need to balance safety awareness with generating fear amongst students. The campaigns to address particular aspects of student safety e.g. "Be Streetsafe" have been developed with this in mind.
Outcomes include a 52% reduction in robbery against 17-19 year-olds in 2002/3 against the previous years' figures.
The team has now identified the need to engage secondary school/further education college students. Previous experience has identified that all materials should not be "badged", particularly with logos from agencies in a position of authority e.g. police, as it puts young people off hearing the message. Partners have agreed to this course of action.
Key points from the discussion
Delegates wanted to know about the different marketing tools used by the project. These included: mouse-mats with safety information; window alarms for homes; small key-ring personal alarms, attractive to male and female students; "win a mobile phone" competition, which allowed the project to text students directly with crime reduction messages.
The issue of supporting victims was raised. The team currently does this through welfare channels. There are plans to look at dedicated student victim service to formalise and improve the service, including the development of a victim pack.
Delegates were interested in how this project could support the safer Schools initiative. The team felt that this was an area that could be built upon with their future plans to work with younger school and college students, particularly around the "Be Streetsafe" campaign.
One of the interesting features of the project was its strong use of marketing techniques, as much as policing techniques. Extensive market research was carried out before the project was launched and the materials produced. This has contributed to the appeal and relevance of the campaign.
Links
Download the full PowerPoint presentation (2.5 Mb - WARNING large file)
Merseyside Police Student Safety web pages
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