Huntingdonshire Business Against Crime

PubWatch – Fighting crime for the night time economy

Launched in November 2008 PubWatch is about to approach its first year anniversary. Funded by Cambridgeshire Constabulary and the Community Safety partnership the sole aim of the partnership is to help publicans and traders in the night time economy prevent and reduce crime, making Huntingdonshire a safer place to live, work and socialize. Here is what we achieved in year one:

• Recognition by the Home Office and Drug Scope as a best practise project
• The exclusion of 10 offenders from members premises.
• Additional funding for intermittent Police patrols including sniffer dogs and mobile CCTV van to coincide with the pilot phase
• Intelligence from members leading to the arrest of two drug dealers
• Implementation of a yellow card, football style warning card system
• During the pilot phase, violent crime reduced from 32 incidents (in the 6 months previous to the pilot phase) compared to 15 in the following six months. As well as the launch of PubWatch, Police patrols and a zero tolerance approach have reduced violent crime by over half, this trend continues.

 You will benefit from:

• A dedicated PubWatch Coordinator
• Photographs of known offenders
• Exclusion of known offenders from your premises
• Stickers to display in your window to indicate you are part of PubWatch
• Instant communication by radio to other members and CCTV control room
• Instant communication by radio to Police officers when on the beat
• Quarterly update and photograph exchange meetings
• A safer working and customer environment due to known offenders not entering your premises
• A coordinated approach to fighting crime and regular updates
• A group approach to lobbying for change initiatives such as zero tolerance to drugs stickers for the placement above toilets
• Yellow card banning system, based on two strikes and you are banned
• Access to a 24/7 incident reporting and intelligence sharing database.

Administration fees

PubWatch membership is £10 per week and includes the rental of a Kenwood radio with overnight battery replacement and insurance. Radios can also be purchased.