Crime alert procedures tightened

The system for relaying police alerts throughout the community has been reviewed and tightened up following a meeting of the local crime prevention team.

Brookmans Park and Little Heath Crime Prevention Group met this afternoon, Thursday 29 January, to consider, among other things, why the Gobions alert, issued in December, failed to reach all areas covered by the local neighbourhood watch group.

Several residents living in Calder Avenue, Brookmans Avenue, Pine Grove, and Bradmore Green, contacted this site to say that they had not received the police warning to avoid Gobions Woodland following an attack on a woman walking alone.

The secretary of the local neighbourhood watch group, Brenda Harris, promised to examine procedures after hearing that areas had been missed.

There are nine neighbourhood watch area co-ordinators in Brookmans Park and Little Heath. They are responsible for delivering newsletters, and police alerts, such as the one concerning the incidents in Gobions, to the 81 local co-ordinators.

The local co-ordinators then deliver the newsletters, and alerts, to between 10 and 15 homes in their 'patch'.

Brenda Harris says not all areas of the local community are covered by the scheme, because not all people want to be involved. However, she says the reason the Gobions alert didn’t reach all neighbourhood watch areas was down to several factors, including people being away at the time and the fact that the group had not had to deal with such a serious alert before.

Now procedures have been tightened, with systems in place to ensure that police alerts are cascaded through the community more effectively in future.

Brenda told this site that the meeting also formally expressed its thanks to the Brookmans Park Newsletter for continuing to publicise police and neighbourhood watch alerts and for providing feedback to the group from the community through the site's forum.

If you are not receiving the regular newsletters and crime alerts through your door, but want to be included, you might need to contact the Brookmans Park and Little Heath Neighbourhood Watch Scheme to see who your nearest co-ordinator is and whether your house can be included.

You can contact Brenda Harris on 01707-655355. You can also contact the community police team on 01707-638112, if you have any information regarding local crime issues.

A public meeting will be held in Cuffley Hall on Thursday 18 March, where people can raise any policing issues with the Hatfield Rural Policing team. It's thought the meeting will start at 7.30 pm, but that has yet to be confirmed.

Local residents have been discussing the Gobions alert issue in this site’s forum.

29 January 2004

Related News
Police alerts system to be reviewed - 29 January 2004
Neighbourhood watch examines alerts system - 5 January 2004
Police investigate Gobions leads - 17 December 2003
Police report a second incident in Gobions - 15 December 2003
Gobions 'attack' warning remains in force - 10 December 2003
Police issue Gobions 'attack' warning - 9 December 2003

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