Retailers join forces in city centre crime battle

A NEW city centre crime-fighting partnership has been launched to make Birmingham more welcoming after a spate of violent attacks.

A man was recently stabbed repeatedly in broad daylight as he stood at a bus stop outside the Bullring on a busy Saturday afternoon, there were three stabbings in a teatime brawl in Dale End, and a man was stabbed in an attempted robbery in the Jewellery Quarter.

The initiative, called City Safe, brings Retail BID Birmingham, store managers, and police together for the first time with radios, enabling them to identify and respond to issues immediately.

“Our members were becoming increasingly concerned about business crime and the impact of anti-social behaviour on the safety and wellbeing of their staff, visitors and customers and asked for our support to combat these issues,” said City Safe manager Jonathan Cheetham, who used to manage Grand Central shopping centre.

“We are harnessing the latest technology, giving our partners communication via a digital radio network with instant text-messaging ability coupled with a secure digital data and imaging system enabling clear identification of issues.”

The City Safe scheme will give members access to a secure twoway network and a text messaging system so they can tackle issues straight away.

It is the first time a digital network has been put in place for this purpose.

Within the first hour of its trial, the scheme identified a travelling criminal in possession of £6,000 of stolen goods.

Mr Cheetham added: “Over the last two months we have trialled and tested our radio system prior to launching and the successes we have had in identifying crime, the performance of the system and the subsequent arrests has exceeded our expectations. As membership increases, this technology and sharing will become more effective as the data trends will expose and help eliminate criminality.

“The use and sharing of intelligence data in this way is something not currently done.”

The council has put forward plans to wage war against anyone causing a public nuisance in the city centre by applying for a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO).

The order can be used to target beggars, public space drinkers, anyone loitering, using the streets as a toilet or spraying graffiti.