To receive a presentation from Michelle Larche, Marketing Officer.
Minutes:
Michelle Larché, Marketing Officer, introduced the Council’s recent crime prevention campaigns as follows:
· The Safer and Stronger Communities Board had tasked the Corporate Communications Team in September 2014 to carry out a co-ordinated crime prevention campaign centred around 3 key objectives. These were:
o Encouraging young people to avoid criminal activity, stay safe and make positive life choices away from crime.
o Reducing crime through helping residents to keep themselves safe and raising awareness (particularly with regard to opportunistic crime);
o Reassuring residents that Enfield was still a safe borough and promoting the positive work within communities to reduce crime (this objective was due to be rolled out in 16/17).
· A variety of channels had been used including local and ethnic press, social media, postcards, targeted mailshots, Our Enfield magazine, bus advertisements and JC Decaux boards.
· Engagement with young people had also involved youth workers and Police officers in schools to help promote key messages.
· Recent and planned campaigns included:
o ‘Pathways to Success’ – promoting positive role models for young people;
o Christmas and Winter anti-burglary campaigns – raising awareness of increased burglary risk during winter nights and the Christmas period and how to avoid being a victim;
o Valentine’s Day postcard – a targeted campaign aimed at gang members to make them think about the impact of their actions on family relationships (‘don’t break your mother’s heart’);
o Campaign to promote registration of mobile phones and the Metropolitan Police’s Immobiliser Site
o Campaign to promote Operation Spyder (vehicle theft). This included outreach work such as handing out promotional key rings in supermarket car parks.
o Domestic abuse/violence – this would be aligned with White Ribbon Day and raised awareness of the fact that anyone could be a victim.
· There had been positive results from the campaigns – for example a reduction in robberies outside schools as a result of the ‘Daylight Hours’ campaign.
The following questions were then taken:
Q: Will the campaign against Domestic Abuse be rolled out in any other languages than English?
A: At the moment, there is no plan to do so, however, the team that commissioned the campaign do work with a range of community groups in the Borough.
Q: Is Domestic Violence more common in any particular community group/s?
A: I don’t have this information to hand however, the campaign images show the diversity of people that can be victims of Domestic Violence.
CI Andy Port commented that he thought the Valentine’s Day campaign had been a positive initiative, particularly for those on the edge of gang life. He added that the Metropolitan Police’s Twitter account currently had 7,000 follows and thought that the Police could work more closely with the Council’s Communications Team to disseminate some of the campaigns’ messages via their Twitter account ACTION: CI Andy Port/Michelle Larche.
The Chair commented that campaign images could be added to the back pages of the Ward Newsletters.
Michelle Larche invited attendees to take away copies of the brochure containing campaign images and Board members requested that soft copies be sent to Jane Juby. Any Board members could then email her to request images ACTION: Michelle Larche/Jane Juby.
The Board Secretary asked if schools had been consulted prior to any campaigns being developed.
Michelle Larche responded that all schools had been sent copies of the posters and if any schools were interested in further youth engagement work the Communications Team could contact them. It would have proved quite time consuming and complex to consult schools beforehand.
It was then asked if the Police officers working in schools had access to the images. CI Andy Port responded that he would ensure this was the case ACTION: CI Andy Port.
It was suggested that some campaign posters could be put up in hospitals (Accident and Emergency). This was acknowledged as a good idea.
It was also asked if there had been any dedicated promotion of the Metropolitan Police’s ‘Met Trace’ initiative; apart from its inclusion in the Winter Burglary campaign. CI Andy Port acknowledged that perhaps more dedicated promotion was needed to raise awareness of the scheme ACTION: CI Andy Port to feedback.