The town with NO police officers
Residents forced to pay £100 a year for security guards to patrol streets
A SEASIDE town has become the first to hire a private security firm to patrol its streets after being abandoned by the police.
Households in Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, are handing over £100 a year for ex-servicemen to guard homes seven nights a week between 7pm and 7am.
Every street is checked at least five times a night and members have a hotline to call in an emergency with a response time of a ‘few minutes’.
Residents have resigned themselves to paying a premium on top of their council tax due to a rash of offences ranging from assaults to burglaries while the cashstrapped force slashes frontline officers.
The town already contributes through council tax towards the £216,000 bill for six police community support officers (PCSOs) but these are shared with four other villages and only get around by bus or bicycle.
More than 300 properties have signed up to the service provided by security firm AGS – meaning more than one in ten of the town’s 4,000 residents are on board – and others are joining.
The scheme will reignite concerns over socalled ‘two-tier policing’, which critics say benefits only those who can afford enhanced protection. But others are likely to be set up as forces prepare themselves for further cuts to government funding.
Essex Police Federation last night warned the public was witnessing the ‘death of local policing’. Frinton residents are split over the scheme but many feel they had to act to protect their community.
One member, who asked not to be named, said: ‘Do I want to pay for my home town to be protected? No. Do I have a choice? No. The police in Frinton are invisible.’
Retired insulator William Marshall, who lives in nearby Holland-on-Sea where AGS is expanding its scheme, said: ‘I’m dead against it. It’s as near as dammit a protection racket.’
Ukip MP Douglas Carswell, who represents the area, said: ‘The Government should be providing people with the free basics, which is getting a visible police force, good care and good local schools.
‘Yet they seem to be able to pay 0.7 per cent of GDP to overseas aid and £3million to fund [charity] Kids Company despite a report showing there were unusual practices.
‘It’s a question of priorities and I think they have the wrong priorities.’
Three unarmed officers split between two vehicles will operate in Frinton, where homeowners are charged £2 a week. Each wears a navy blue uniform with the company logo. There were 39 crimes reported in Frinton in August, the latest month for which figures are available. These included 13 violent or sexual offences, 11 of anti- social behaviour and one burglary. The total was up 50 per cent on the same month last year.
The only police officer with a specific role in the town, which attracts thousands of tourists each year, is a PC who also covers the larger community of Walton- on-the-Naze and is based in the police station there. Frinton’s own station closed two decades ago and the one in Walton is due to shut as Essex Police tries to save £63million over five years.
From next year the nearest station will be eight miles away in Clacton-on-Sea.
AGS boss Stephen Beardsley, a former soldier, predicted private security ‘will be part of the norm in years to come’.
He said: ‘We have a fantastic police force but they are so overstretched it’s unbelievable. It must be demoralising for them to be stuck inside, doing paperwork, fearing for their jobs. I feel sorry for them.’
Mr Beardsley said his firm had helped apprehend three suspected burglars and clamped down on anti-social behaviour since the service was launched in September. He admitted his employees had no more powers than a citizen’s arrest but added: ‘We are about being a deterrent.’
Mark Smith of Essex Police Federation said: ‘ It could mean the death of local policing. People should not be put in the position where they have to pay for private patrols.’
An Essex Police spokesman said: ‘Private security firms have existed for a long time. Police forces across the country work with them, community groups and partner organisations to prevent and reduce crime.’
‘Protection racket’