Policing partnership is highlighted at meeting

Policing partnership is highlighted at meeting

13 October 2021

THE work of the district’s Policing and Community Safety Partnership (PCSP) and the PSNI was highlighted during the recent International Association of Chiefs of Police conference.

The conference is the largest and most significant global law enforcement event of its kind and was originally scheduled to take place in New Orleans last month. However, as a result of the impact of the Hurricane Ida on the Louisiana area, it moved online.  

Slieve Croob councillor Alan Lewis — the current chairman of the district’s PCSP — said a joint presentation at the international conference provided an excellent opportunity to profile the work of the local organisation and the breadth of community engagement activity it has taken forward with the PSNI across the district. 

“The opportunity to showcase some of our most significant achievements to an international audience has allowed us to develop new links and share practices across the international policing community,” he said.

“As the only presentation shortlisted for inclusion on the conference programme from outside the USA, this is a testament to the strength of work being carried out in our district.”

The PCSP and the PSNI presentation focused on successful community police engagement across the council district where, in the past year, over 500 young people have taken part in a range of diversionary programmes.

These included the development of The Paulie Project road safety documentary which has been viewed 65,000 times online, the installation of 14 speed indicator signs across the district and the further extension of the so-called Rapid bin initiative which has resulted in over 75,000 items of preion medicine being removed from across the community.

Local police and the PCSP have also worked together to develop the Kid’s Court Initiative across the district.

Motorists apprehended for speeding offences outside a local primary school appeared in front of a ‘jury’ of P7 pupils aged between 11 and 12 to explain why they were speeding, rather than receive a fine and/or penalty points. 

PCSP officials have described this as a “hugely impactful piece of work” and can be viewed on the group’s YouTube channel via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klejWlp5v5Q

During the Covid-19 lockdown, the PCSP and PSNI community public engagement work moved online delivering a series of digital engagement clinics with neighbourhood watch co-ordinators across the district. 

And so-called ‘scambassador training’, to raise awareness of the escalating issue of scams and domestic abuse training, to raise awareness for employees in the hair and beauty industry, were both highly successful virtual workshops.

Looking to the future, the PCSP said the council area will soon be the first in the UK to have a bespoke mobile police engagement vehicle which will “add further value to local community engagement activity, especially for young people and other communities who may be considered hard to reach.”