This month’s blog is written by PC Bradley Hall, Community Safety Engagement Officer based in Harlow for Essex Police.
As Harlow Community Safety Engagement Officer, I enjoy speaking with people across the community in Harlow, from residents to community groups, charities and businesses. My role is to find out what matters to them and work with them to ensure effective crime prevention.
As a police force, we are proud to be Harlow Ambassadors and through joining Discover Harlow we are pleased to have already started helping other Ambassadors keep their businesses safe and prevent crime. We are really excited to be partnering with Harlow businesses to provide advice, including safeguarding training for employees who routinely engage with the public. These employees may spot possible signs of domestic abuse for example, and by understanding the signs and knowing where to signpost, they may help someone get the help they need quickly.
If your employees are public facing and you would be interested in getting involved with this sort of work, please get in touch.
Businesses are an essential part of any community, and so to ensure they stay protected, we want to work closely with them. The Essex Business Crime Unit work specifically with businesses, and as part of their work they produce a monthly business bulletin which provides practical advice to help protect your business from crime, be that international cyber crime or more local activity. In our most recent bulletin we give practical advice on how to protect your business premises from a national trend of burglary by gaining access through the roof of a business unit, and theft of catalytic converters. If you would like to receive a copy each month, or would like to talk more about how the Essex Business Crime Unit can help your business or organisation please get in touch.
But it’s not just businesses we want to work with, we would like to partner with charities, public bodies and other community organisations too. As a police force, we can offer both help and advice. During the recent lockdown, our officers worked with Harlow based charity Community Embrace, helping to deliver food parcels to those in need, and by working with charities we also hope to chat with residents who are new to the country, about the role of the police in the UK. Our officers have also been involved with the reopening of Harlow town centre, helping to ensure that everyone can return to the centre safely to work and shop.
If you would like to discuss how we could work more closely with your business, organisation or community please get in touch, we would love to hear from you!
Please note these contact details are not for reporting crime, to do this please telephone 999 in an emergency or if non-urgent, please email or call 101.
