This week is National Neighbourhood Watch Week and a great opportunity to celebrate some of the great work being done by these volunteers on behalf of the community.

Warwickshire has around 5,000 Neighbourhood Watch (NHW) scheme co-ordinators that represent over 50,000 householders across the County.

Coordinators carry out local projects and help to keep members of their schemes aware of local crime issues. Warwickshire Police send out information by telephone, fax, and email or text messages to schemes by a computer based messaging system. In the last 12 months 806 such alerts have been sent out. Messages are also posted to The Warwickshire Safer Neighbourhood Teams web site: www.safer-neighbourhoods.co.uk

David Whitehouse, Head of Community Protection at Warwickshire Police said: “We really value the work of Neighbourhood Watch and their work with our Safer Neighbourhood Teams”.

If anyone is interested in finding out more about joining Neighbourhood Watch or joining a local scheme they should contact their local Safer Neighbourhood Team or email watch@warwickshire.police.uk

Local activities during the week in Warwick district include Neighbourhood Watch members circulating letters to residents in the vicinity of schools and places of worship asking them to report suspicious activity or crime in progress to the Police. This follows damage and thefts at these premises in recent moths.

Volunteers are also blitzing graffiti, particularly on the Pay & Display black boxes in Leamington and Warwick and the green cable TV boxes. They will be using anti-graffiti cleaning kits provided by Warwick District Council.

Neighbourhood Watch are also highlighting the importance of businesses in combating crime in communities. Over 5,000 businesses of various types are members of the scheme in Warwickshire. This includes commercial business, shops, public houses, hotels and rural businesses. Warwickshire Police are currently working with the National Farmers Union to promote membership of the rural watch scheme which currently has over 500 members. Peter Guillaume, Business Crime Prevention Manager for Warwickshire Police said: “These schemes are really important to keep businesses engaged in combating crime. We get some very good feedback from members who value the information they receive”.

This week also sees the launch of a Truck Watch scheme in the midlands. The scheme involves adjacent Police Forces, Warwickshire, West Midlands, West Mercia and Staffordshire and National Police lead TruckPol to combat road freight crime. The Midland Forces will share and circulate crime alert information to freight distributors.