Offenders beware – those working to make Rhondda Cynon Taf’s town centres safer places have a new crime-fighting tool.

Funding has been secured for the installation of an innovative database that allows partner agencies to input information on crime. This, in turn, allows the plotting of criminal activity and offender movements, creating reports on where, when and why crime is happening.

As the database becomes filled with information on offenders and crime, partners will be able to produce and issue warnings to people on crime hot spots and trends and take the necessary prevention and enforcement action.

At present, a number of agencies are working, under the umbrella of the Rhondda Cynon Taf Community Safety Partnership, to reduce crime, as it has long been recognised that no one agency can solve the county’s problems in isolation.

While the Council, Police, town centre shops, pubs, clubs and businesses all have a common aim – to reduce crime and deter offenders in order to protect and attract visitors – they all have different information sharing and recording protocols.

This results in extensive, important information being stored in the various databases used by the partners – with no way of sharing or jointly accessing that information.

Active Crime Intelligence System (ACIS) changes that, offering a one-stop-shop database that can be populated with information and accessed for reports without breaching Data Protection or Human Rights issues.

It has been developed by Business Crime Reduction Partnerships in partnership with the police and is already being used successfully in numerous town centres across the UK.

Rhondda Cynon Taf Business Crime Partnership has been able to purchase the system for the benefit of its residents and businesses thanks to its own funding sources and also investment from Rhondda Cynon Taf Council’s Town Centres Team.

The database will first be used to monitor and analyse crime trends and offender/victim profiles in Aberdare town centre, Mountain Ash town centre (including Tirfounder Field retail park), Pontypridd town centre (including Brown Lenox retail park) and Talbot Green retail park.

Cllr John David, Cabinet Member for Communities and Vice Chair of the Community Safety Partnership, welcomed the new system and praised those who have worked so hard to secure its arrival.

He explained: “There are a number of agencies working in partnership across our county in order to reduce crime and disorder. This is not just an issue for the police, we all have a part to play and that includes the shops, businesses and licensed premises that benefit from being based in safe, attractive, welcoming town centres.

“The arrival of ACIS allows all those stakeholders to send information on crime and offenders to one system which, in turn, will produce detailed reports on crime hot spots and crime trends.

“This is invaluable to us as we proactively work to protect people. For example, if we know most bag snatches are happening to female victims at ATMS then we can target our crime reduction activity and messages to a specific group in a specific area, making it more effective.

“That is just one example of the many ways in which we can use this new system and I urge any town centre business that is not already a member of their local Business Watch or Pubwatch to get involved now.”

Inspector Richard Erskine, who heads Community Safety across Rhondda Cynon Taf for South Wales Police, said: “The management of crime information to ensure our proactive and enforcement activity is targeted in the right places has always been a priority.

“As the emphasis on partnership working continues, we needed a system that allowed all agencies to submit and share information without breaching Data Protection and Human Rights and ACIS will assist us in this.

“Just as the police and, ultimately, the community, have benefited from targeted, intelligence-led activity, now so can partner agencies and the businesses that rely on being located in vibrant town centres.”

For more information on Business Watch and Pub Watch and how you can get involved, contact contact Mike Jacklin, Business Crime Reduction Co-ordinator on 01443 495188.