Natural Neighbourhoods

December 2010

Police and partners use wards

For

Political

And

Statistical

Reasons

Residents don’t recognise wards -they have no emotional link

However…

Each ward contains distinct demographic and geographic communities =

Natural

Neighbourhoods

Residents have an emotional link to their Natural Neighbourhood

"I'm only interested in MY neighbourhood"

Each Natural Neighbourhood has different needs

And accesses information differently

We have to ask residents!

Natural Neighbourhoods can't be identified using maps or databases

The Aim

If we can identify natural neighbourhoods and talk to residents in a way that they prefer about things that interest them…

We can harness the power of local people to help us drive down crime

The BenefitsNatural Neighbourhoods will…

• Produce intelligence-led engagement

• Reduce waste and cost nothing

• Increase accountability and public confidence

• Stimulate volunteering & partnership

• Enable problem-orientated-partnership

• Increase intelligence

• Reduce crime and anti-social behaviour

The Method

• The Safer Neighbourhoods Team will use their knowledge of the ward to identify natural neighbourhoods.

• The SNT will ask local groups what they perceive to be natural neighbourhoods.

• The community will be asked to describe what types of communication they respond to such as SNT

• Using a dip sample method some residents will be surveyed.

Greenwich West SNT divide their ward into patrol areas based on:

Demographic groups

&

Physical boundaries: roads parks etc.

"Best fit"

• The Sergeant, using a 'best fit' approach, divides the identified natural neighbourhoods between their PCSOs

• Using consumer data bases and the advice of our community the PCSOs will design a bespoke communication method for each of their neighbourhoods.

• We will review each communication on a 3 month basis

Natural Neighbourhoods is a communication strategy

There is no additional work or cost: "It's our normal work but we are doing it in a cost effective way"

It's ground breaking: Some police forces and local authorities claim to use natural neighbourhoods but, in practice, they relied on crime or deprivation maps and did not consult local residents

We still analyse crime as normal: at a ward level