The Poole pubwatch scheme has gone online, after a police report says it has helped reduce violent crime by 36.9% over the last four years.
Safe and Sound is similar to other pubwatch schemes in place around the country, where if a customer is banned from one pub due to bad behaviour or violence, they are banned from all others venues signed up to the scheme for a year.
Up until now, issues could only be discussed at monthly meetings, but with the scheme moving online, information will be able to be shared instantaneously. Coordinator of the scheme, Hannah Mayo, said: “it will make the process a lot quicker as it will allow the venues to upload pictures to then be discussed at the next meeting.”
Of the scheme as a whole, Miss Mayo said it had given a very visible benefit to the Poole nightlife since it began in 2007. She said: “over the last couple of years the number of incident reports we have received has gone down dramatically.”
Safer neighbourhood team officer, PC Adam Gill, said Safe and Sound has “also helped to reduce the number of repeat offenders”.
In 2007, there were 231 violent crimes reported in Poole related to the night-time economy. This figure has now been reduced by 81 incidents.
