‘3VP’ Crime Reduction Initiative Launched In Telford
As part of their continued efforts to reduce crime and provide increased reassurance in the borough, police in Telford & Wrekin have launched a new initiative in an attempt to further educate local people about how they can make themselves, their homes and their property even more secure.
The ‘3VP' (Vulnerable Persons, Vulnerable Property, Vulnerable Premises) initiative as it has been named, is the brainchild of Telford's crime risk manager PC Fred Jones and has been launched to coincide with West Mercia Police's Operation Protect 3 burglary awareness campaign.
The aim of ‘3VP' is based on a more traditional style of policing where community support officers - with the support of their local police officers - will place an even greater emphasis on recording and monitoring activity in their area and actively attempting to prevent an individual becoming a victim of crime, rather than assisting them once a crime has actually taken place.
Speaking about the launch of the 3VP initiative, PC Jones said: "To support this initiative community support officers will further increase pro-active patrols in their neighbourhoods, and will actively seek persons, premises or property that officers deem to be immediately vulnerable. Once identified, the officer will take steps to locate the owner/occupier and then give suitable crime prevention advice.
"This data will then be captured and recorded on the 3VP spreadsheet and stored for future reference so that we can keep track of the areas where patrols have taken place and also areas where perhaps people appear to be less aware about the need to protect themselves against opportunist thieves."
The three main crime reduction areas that police are targeting with this initiative are as follows:
1: Vulnerable Persons - This would include repeat victims, persons identified as a potential target for crime, elderly residents in relation to bogus callers, children left alone at home and homeless people to name but a few.
2: Vulnerable Property - This would include insecure vehicles, sat-navs on display, car stereos or other valuables left on display in vehicles, or people who leave their purses on top of their shopping trolleys in shopping centres for example.
3: Vulnerable Premises - Examples of this would include properties with windows left open, side gates not locked, insecure doors, dustbins left in front of gates, properties often left unoccupied and repeat victims.
PC Jones continued: "One of the most important aspects of policing is crime reduction and although crime levels remain low, we are working hard to make Telford an even safer place to live. Sometimes, just by getting someone to close a window or remove a jacket from the back seat of their car, an opportunist thief can be deterred and criminal activity disrupted.
"We are confident 3VP will help us provide support to many more local people and the initiative provides an opportunity for some excellent community engagement. People are often pleasantly shocked and surprised when an officer knocks on their door to tell them that they have left their handbag on display in their vehicle or that their ground floor window is open and they are often very grateful for the advice.
"Another positive aspect of 3VP is that the information we collate can form part of the PACT (Partners and Community Together) meeting process and new priorities can be agreed if certain areas are identified as particularly vulnerable from the data captured.
"In Telford & Wrekin, police officers are determined to improve the quality of life for people that live locally and provide them with greater confidence about their own security. With that in mind we believe that 3VP can really have a positive impact on crime reduction in the Borough by spotting potential victims of crime before a criminal does."
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