RESIDENTS are being encouraged to sign up to a police messaging system to help the fight against crime. Community Messaging enables police to pass on crime warnings, appeal for help with an offence that has happened or update people on policing initiatives and successes.

Messages can be received by email, phone or letter and you can give a preferred time for police to get in touch. Thousands of people are already signed up to the scheme across the Force area. Over the past year, local people have received alerts on a wide range of issues from bogus callers and scams to missing children and house burglaries, as well as urgent warnings like potential flooding.

A police spokesman said: “Community Messaging helps to improve communication between the police and residents and is a great tool for helping us prevent and detect crime.” The service is free and very simple to join.

What is community messaging?

Community messaging is a targeted messaging service that allows us to contact subscribers with a message to help prevent or solve a crime in your local area. Community messaging also allows you to find out about your next community meeting (PACT), what your local police are doing about issues affecting your area, as well as local crime statistics and trends.

You can choose to receive messages by faxed letter, phone or email. Information from the public is their best weapon in the fight against crime. Many crimes have been solved because people have responded to police appeals for information.

They have asked for your help to make your community a safer place. By taking a few moments to fill out a simple form you can help to drive down crime.

The Online Form

The first part of the form asks for personal information. The second part asks which watch schemes you belong to, if any and in the third section they will ask you when best they can contact you.

You can sign up to this new scheme by clicking here.