Avon and Somerset Constabulary

Avon and Somerset Constabulary provides the police service for a diverse range of communities from inner city Bristol to rural Exmoor. Its main aims are to reduce crime and the fear of crime, promote safety and reduce disorder.

Its geographic approach to policing sees officers working closely with local people, involving them in making their community a better place to live and work. The constabulary has approximately 5,000 employees - including police officers and support staff members – but also benefits from the voluntary services of hundreds of special constables and Neighbourhood Watch members.

The Challenge

Avon and Somerset Constabulary wanted to reduce instances of burglary by increasing the public’s participation in their own safety through Neighbourhood Watch schemes. The constabulary also wanted to take a proactive step to reduce burglary rates within high-risk households by securing properties through the “Bobby Van” initiative.

The Neighbourhood Watch and Bobby Van schemes provide the police force with a two-pronged approach to reducing burglary rates. While the Neighbourhood Watch scheme provides communication at a group level through bulletins, watch-out messages and talks from crime prevention offices, the Bobby Van aims to make individuals less susceptible to burglary by increasing home security and providing specific advice.

In order to effectively target communication and resources for the schemes, Avon and Somerset Constabulary needed to understand which socio-economic groups are most susceptible to burglary.

The Solution

Avon and Somerset Constabulary licensed InSite, a market analysis tool designed to help organisations understand the needs of distinct communities within any geographic area. To describe the unique characteristics of each of these communities, the constabulary also licensed ACORN and PeopleUK, CACI’s market leading consumer classification systems.

The constabulary imported postcode points for its Neighbourhood Watch coordinators into InSite and profiled them to understand how effective the Neighbourhood Watch scheme is at attracting vulnerable groups. The resulting social make-up was then compared with those ACORN types at greater risk of been burgled.

The constabulary also imported its Beat Areas into the system to understand the incident rates with each area and the resident ACORN types. This simple solution has enabled the Avon and Somerset Constabulary to identify potential crime hot spots.

Results

Following the analysis, Avon and Somerset Constabulary realised that the majority of participants in Neighbourhood Watch schemes did not match the ACORN profile of those groups most at–risk from burglaries. This highlighted the need to implement communication programs to encourage those high-risk groups to become involved.

The profile developed for groups most at risk from burglaries has enabled the constabulary to target resources, such as the Bobby Van, much more effectively and also build better relationships with the local community, through an increased awareness of their individual needs.

Jennifer Norman said,

“CACI is helping us adopt a much more customer-centric approach to fighting crime through the use of commercial marketing techniques, not widely used in the police force at the moment. By identifying vulnerable groups through market analysis, we can be much more proactive when targeting the services and support we provide.”

In the future, the constabulary will be using this type of analysis in their fight to reduce other types of crime.

Avon and Somerset Constabulary does not necessarily endorse the products in this case study.

Community Safety