Flintshire stays safe under OWLs wing
Flintshire Neighbourhood Watch Association (FNWA) has been piloting an interactive system called Online Watch Link (OWL) for a year to manage Neighbourhood Watch and to send crime alerts out to its members.
Flintshire Neighbourhood Watch Association (FNWA) has been piloting an interactive system called Online Watch Link (OWL) for a year to manage Neighbourhood Watch and to send crime alerts out to its members.
The success of its adoption of OWL was revealed by the latest crime figures showing Flintshire was the only district to experience a fall in crime despite a 9.4 per cent increase in crime across the rest of North Wales. The other five districts were not part of the 12-month pilot project to evaluate OWL. Crime in those districts increased by as much as 18.6 per cent compared to last year.
Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom has now authorised funding for a further 12 months use of OWL, which will now include PCs and police community support officers (PCSOs) being trained in using it.
Denise Edwards, CEO of FNWA based at Mold Police Station, said: OWL provides interactive management and communication systems for street coordinators and members of watch schemes. It provides them with regular, localised messages from police, Trading Standards, fire and rescue service and others which inform them of crimes and scams in their areas. It is an effective system in alerting people about crime and is much needed, especially in the current economic climate.
Messages, including crime alerts and timely crime-prevention advice, are sent out to Neighbourhood Watch members by Jackie Lee, who receives the latest information from partnership organisations.
Ms Lee said: People can receive messages by telephone, fax, email, mobile phone or letter, so those who do not have access to the Internet do not miss out on OWL. Its a highly-effective and efficient way to get important information out into the county. Our coordinators and members tell us that they feel that Flintshire is a safer county with OWL in it. Its nice to see that the crime figures now reflect that.
A new study commissioned by Hertfordshire Chief Constable Frank Whiteley looked at 443 documents, including 280 research papers, and concluded that UK Neighbourhood Watch schemes were effective in reducing crime in 79 per cent of cases when compared with similar areas where no scheme exists.
OWL recently won a government national award for innovation after its successful deployment across Hertfordshire, where it was developed by Direct Path Solutions. It has also been deployed across all nine districts in Staffordshire. Both counties experienced a five per cent drop in crime this quarter compared to the same period last year.
A survey in January run by FNWA revealed a higher-than-expected positive reaction from the public when asked about OWL, including a response from Farm Watch (representing 70 people) describing OWLs communications as very helpful. Farms are vulnerable to thefts of machinery and diesel fuel.
Gary Fenton, from Direct Path Solutions, said: Although weve never claimed that OWL will reduce crime, the case study in North Wales, where all districts operate under the same police force, reveals that OWL has a compelling role to play alongside good policing.
The community safety lead for North Wales Police in Flintshire, Inspector Paul Firth, agreed.
OWL is an effective tool that has supported the hard work of a lot of people in the area, he said.
When it was launched, I highlighted the way OWL would enable the people of Flintshire to better look out for one another, the basis, for me, behind what Neighbourhood Watch is about. It has clearly gone a long way in doing this and helped in the effort of many to tackle crime.
OWL provides both interactive management and communications for watch schemes and community and group-based initiatives. Crucially, OWL permits members to log into its website to access additional information about crime, statistics and valuable local information.
Currently, over 12,000 watches around the UK are managed using OWL, with 200,000 messages sent each month.
- OWL is available for participating counties and police forces at
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