Crime and disorder slashed by 80% on troubled estate, claims MoD Police

Antisocial behaviour and youth disorder in a large housing estate have been slashed by 80 per cent over three years following an initiative rooted in “old-fashioned policing”, it has been claimed.

Helensburgh’s Churchill estate is one of a number of sites in the UK with houses built for Ministry of Defence (MoD) workers.

The area near the Faslane naval base, which is home to about 1,000 military and civilian families, was said to have been blighted in the past by high rates of petty crime and antisocial behaviour.

But the MoD Police claim a community programme it set up three years ago has reduced the trouble and cut the cost of vandalism in the area by more than £50,000 a year.

“It’s a massively successful programme. It beat all our expectations,” said Chief Inspector Jim Gillen, a senior officer involved in the scheme.

Chief Insp Gillen said that there used to be a “high incidence” of antisocial behaviour in the area, including youths drinking in the streets, vandalism and petty crime.

He said: “It came back to a lack of ownership in the estate because of the type of families we’re dealing with, service families who tend to be in one place for two or three years at a time and then move on.

“The neighbouring estates also viewed it as an MoD estate and the facilities in there became a target for juvenile disorder from other places.

“One of the first things we set about doing was engendering that sense of ownership among the community, not just the MoD community but the surrounding community too.”

He said the initiative had involved the force dedicating two community officers to the area, where they organised a series of projects for youngsters.

Working with Strathclyde Police, the scheme includes running a youth club, a monthly disco for teenagers and offering activities through a local golf club – perks that will be withdrawn if youngsters overstep the line.

Chief Insp Gillen said: “It’s almost like a carrot-and-stick approach. A very important part of it was giving the young people something else to do. But they also know that if they’re detected doing something, we will come after them.

“We’ve now been running that for about three years and as a result we have reduced anti- social behaviour and youth disorder by 80 per cent.

“We’ve reduced the malicious mischief and the vandalism there by £58,000 a year.

“That’s more than the cost of a police officer, so we’re spending money to save money.”

However, concerns have been raised that similar projects will fall victim to the cuts likely to be faced by MoD Police as part of the government’s Strategic Defence and Security Review.

Eamon Keating, national chairman of the Defence Police Federation, the association which represents MoD Police officers, said that while the Helensburgh initiative looked safe for now, other UK projects were under threat.

He said: “Currently, we’ve got 70 dedicated defence community police officers located at over 50 locations in the UK. They’re looking at reducing around 50 per cent of those. The proposal is to take them out of the air force and naval locations and to reduce the army footprint.”

Mr Keating went on: “The Prime Minister has quite clearly stated that community policing is paramount in his Big Society.

“We’ve been doing this since 2004 and we do it really well, and it’s now under threat.

“We want ministers and military chiefs to reconsider because we really do bring a positive element to the armed forces and we do it in effect at nil cost because of the savings that can be generated by having a community police officer in an area. We understand fully that we have to take our share of the current financial deficit, but that has to be based against value for money.”

A spokesman for the MoD said: “The MoD attaches very high importance to safeguarding its people and their families.

“The MoD will continue to maintain effective and proportionate levels of security at all its sites. In the current financial climate, we have concluded that spending must be scaled back, with those officers remaining concentrated on the locations considered to have the highest priority.

“These changes involves a degree of increased risk, but we believe these risks are manageable, and that in the current financial climate it is appropriate to secure the savings for the wider good of defence and the taxpayer.”