Neighbourhood Watch

Left to right: John Wright MBE, Brian Aldred, Prime Minster Rishi Sunak and Derek Pratt MBE

Sussex Neighbourhood Watch were invited to an informal meeting with their Horsham colleagues and the Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner, Katy Bourne OBE, at the Dog & Bacon public house on Monday 10th June, and were surprised to be joined by Prime Minster Rishi Sunak.

Mr Sunak was campaigning in West Sussex, and had visited Crawley earlier in the day. This followed an announcement that a further 8,000 warranted police officers were to be recruited, and a hotspot policing programme introduced to stamp out anti-social behaviour across England and Wales.

On arrival Mr Sunak was greeted by Sir Jeremy Quin, Conservative candidate and former MP for Horsham, a supporter of Neighbourhood Watch.

Mr Sunak was keen to hear about how Neighbourhood Watch was helping to enhance crime prevention in Sussex. John Wright MBE, the Chair of Sussex Neighbourhood Watch Federation, explained how the over 100,000 members of Neighbourhood Watch across the county support Sussex Police to help keep residents and visitors as safe as possible. Mr Sunak was surprised at the size and reach of Neighbourhood Watch, and its range of activities in Sussex.

John said: “Katy Bourne has been very supportive of Neighbourhood Watch, and has provided much needed funding for a range of projects planned for the coming months.”

He continued: “Neighbourhood Watch is a charity, and as such we are completely neutral in politics. Our focus is on crime prevention, reducing the fear of crime, public and community safety, and Community Resilience. We want people to feel safe as well as be safe.”

John explained that we are planning to strengthen our already strong partnership with Sussex Police, and be in a situation such that should a burglary happen, then local Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinators will be the first to hear about it, and will then actively support police enquiries by visiting neighbours, who may have witnessed something important but may not be keen to speak to police, and provide support and reassurance to those in the area. Sussex Police run Operation Magpie, their campaign to tackle burglaries, and Neighbourhood Watch is an important element in this.

Derek Pratt MBE, Deputy Chair of Sussex Neighbourhood Watch, explained how Neighbourhood Watch partners Sussex Police to maintain the Neighbourhood Alert communications system used by both organisations, keeping the database as accurate as possible, in fact the cleanest in the country.

Derek continued: “The Sussex Community Search Team, which started life in 2000 as the Neighbourhood Watch Search Team, was originally set up to assist the police, when requested, to search for missing high risk vulnerable people. Now that has been extended to include Safety Sweeps, and we are regularly asked to carry out searches in public places to locate hidden drugs or knives, and take them off the streets.”

The Prime Minister was impressed by photographs of weapons that had been recovered by the Search Team. 

Brian Aldred, Federation Image & Branding Team Leader, outlined the Sussex Junior Neighbourhood Watch scheme, designed for primary school children in Years 5 and 6, to help keep them safe, deter them from becoming future causes of crime, and along with their families, become members of Neighbourhood Watch for life. Approximately 3,500 school children have gone through the scheme.

Brian explained that nine key projects have been agreed with and funded by Katy Bourne. These will help deliver real benefit to Neighbourhood Watch, our volunteers and our communities.

Peter Wood, Chair of the Horsham Neighbourhood Watch Association, spoke to the Prime Minister about how the group is the ‘glue for the community’ between the people and the police.

He added: “We were talking to him about some of the projects we have in place to help reduce crime, and help people learn how to defend themselves against crime.”

"Everybody wants to see more bobbies on the beat. To live the positive feeling of the community, more policemen and more communication will help. More neighbourhood policing is really the key.”

Having heard about all Neighbourhood Watch does in Sussex the Prime Minister said “Thank you team, inspiring, absolutely brilliant, incredible job, thank you again.”