An initiative which brings together businesses in Lichfield has been recognised for its crime-fighting work.
Lichfield Townsafe has been formally accredited by umbrella organisation Partnerships Against Business Crime in Staffordshire (PABCIS).
Staffordshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Ellis is determined to make sure that businesses who are the victims of crime get the support they need. He has commissioned the Business Crime Matters strategy, spearheaded by his deputy Sue Arnold who was at Thursday’s accreditation event in Lichfield city centre.
Townsafe members from both the daytime and night-time economy work together to help prevent town centre crime and disorder by sharing information with each other, with police and other partners and by implementing their own sanctions.
PABCIS has been supported with funding from the PCC’s Proceeds of Crime Fund which sees 100 per cent of received by Staffordshire Police going back into local communities. It is made up of money seized from criminals as Staffordshire Police continue to strip offenders of their assets.
Mrs Arnold said: “Business crime matters – which is why the work that PABCIS is doing throughout Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent is so important.
“It’s fantastic that criminals’ ill-gotten gains are being ploughed back into crime-fighting initiatives in our town and city centres.
“I wholeheartedly support the work that Lichfield Townsafe is doing in the city. They’ve worked hard to receive the PABCIS accreditation which will benefit businesses in the town centres and members of the public who use them.”
PABCIS is the overarching umbrella organisation under which all local business crime partnerships, Shopwatch and Pubwatch schemes sit to ensure consistency in operation, policy and service delivery to businesses. It also manages the central intelligence hub into which local schemes feed information so that action can be taken by businesses, police and partners.
PABCIS coordinator Julie Davies said: “All business crime partnerships in Staffordshire operate under the overarching organisation of PABCIS, creating consistency in approach whilst ensuring that partnerships are not only legally compliant, but are also productive and effective for the benefit of our business communities.
“Businesses form the life blood of our town centres, and so it is important that partnerships work together to help to create a safe and secure environment for all those who work, visit and invest in the district. Lichfield Townsafe has worked hard during the last two years in order to achieve the standard laid down by PABCIS. I am delighted with the progress, and look forward to working with the partnership in order to develop this further across the area.”
Chief Superintendent Jeff Moore, from Staffordshire Police, said: “The accreditation of Lichfield Townsafe is recognition of how closely members work together with the police in preventing crime and keeping our town centres safer. The PABCIS model is well established now within Staffordshire and has shown how effective it can be in bringing partners together. I am really pleased that Lichfield is now part of this way of working.”
A new service which offers free expert support and guidance to Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent businesses who are victims of crime was launched in January. Business Crime Advisors are available to all local firms whether they report the crime to police or not and offer victims specialist and confidential support in areas such as security, insurance, ICT recovery and reputational damage.
For more details on the service, which is run by Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce, visit www.businesscrimematters.com
