Maidstone Labour Group
LABOUR BELIEVES IN SAFE AND
SECURE COMMUNITIES
Crime and fear of crime can
damage the lives of individuals and spoil communities. It is often the poor and vulnerable
who suffer most.
Labour Councillors will:
 Act in co-operation with relevant agencies and residents to make
the town and the surrounding villages safer places to be.
Continue to press for improvements in street lighting of a type
that will minimise light pollution.
Campaign for the restoration of community policing by real
police.
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Continue to monitor the effectiveness of Close Circuit Television. |
| At the outset of CCTV the Labour Group took the view that the system
should be primarily for the protection of individuals and not for the monitoring of shop
windows. If the shops and business premises in the town wanted us to be their
security system then they should contirbute to the cost. |
CCTV Figures released by Kent
Police show a 13.3% fall in reported crime in the town centre area covered by CCTV in
1996. This compares to a fall of 6.9% in the Maidstone and Malling Police area as a
whole. Bearing in mind that reported crime had already fallen by one third in the
town centre following the installation of CCTV this shows a further encouraging trend.
51 Cameras are now monitored in the Borough Council's Control Centre. This
includes cameras being monitored on a commercial basis on behalf of Mid Kent Health Care
Trust and Kent County Council.
The effectiveness of the CCTV Scheme is being enhanced by the operation of the radionet
system which links around 30 town centre shops. Coordinated by the CCTV Guards, the
system, which has been entirley financed by the private sector via the Town Centre
Management Initiative, operates in conjuction with CCTV and has been particularly
effective in dealing with shoplifting and other shop related crime as well as rapidly
finding lost children. It thus represents a further contribution to making Maidstone
a safer town centre.
The Town Centre Management Initiative is now exploring a similar radio system linking
licensed premises in the town centre. |
Take tough action to deal with neighbourhood harassment.
Develop neighbourhood policy initiatives to tackle crime, using
an effective multi-agency approach.
Work to develop community safety and crime prevention
programmes.
Develop drug and alcohol education programmes.
Develop adequate recreational and youth provision.
Copyright © 1996 [Labour Party Maidstone]. All rights reserved.
Revised: December 26, 1996.
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