21
Sep
2015
By Calvin at 13:44 GMT, 10 years ago
Chief Superintendent Ian Wylie is the new area commander for Somerset. He took up the post last week and according to the report in This Is The Westcountry he intends to tackle the root causes of crime.
He said “It is a wonderful place and my mission is to ensure everyone living, working and visiting the area are safe and, equally importantly, they feel safe. The Somerset team are committed to delivering the service you need and deserve.
Acknowledging that budgets are under considerable pressure in the public sector he said that he would strive to minimise the impact on the front-line as much as possible and to try and manage their resources effectively to ensure they are where they are needed most.
Notably he said that he was going to work hard to reduce demand on services through implementing further effective crime prevention work and by working with partners, communities and local businesses to “design-out issues” and deal with problems in a holistic fashion wherever possible, tackling root causes rather than symptoms.
TCPW Comment
Crikey!
According to leading criminologists Marcus Felson and Ronald V Clarke “There is no single cause of crime that is sufficient to guarantee its occurrence: yet opportunity above all others is necessary and therefore has as much or more claim to being a root cause.”
So there we have it; the root cause of crime is opportunity and the new Chief in Somerset is going to do all he can to remove it.
With such severe budget cuts and his intention to minimise the impact on the front line I wonder how he’s going to achieve his goals. I think the clues lie with his intention to work with partner agencies.
Perhaps he’s going to ask his local fire service colleagues to lend a helping hand. Some of them have begun to offer simple crime prevention advice to householders when carrying out their regular fire safety checks; something I know about, because I know the trainer who’s training them. ‘Designing out crime’ is something they should be doing already through the police ‘Secured by Design’ project, so maybe it’s his intention to do more of that with his partners in the local planning authority.
I think he’s set himself some difficult challenges, but I like the language!
Source: This the Westcountry http://www.thisisthewestcountry.co.uk/news/13766201.Somerset_s_new_area_commander_sets_out_his_mission/
