Please don’t mistake Ourwatch with social media. Ourwatch is more than social media. It provides a reliable and secure home for your community to exchange, learn and use as valuable tool.

Ourwatch is part of the Neighbourhood Alert provision, which is a proven, highly secure community messaging system. Looking at the history time-line, you can see the development of the organisation, which also provides volunteer care and training on a continuous basis.

It is so secure, that it is police approved and used by 21 English Police Forces and other organisations like the Police and Crime Commissioner. Click through and see the endorsements.

Uniquely, communities can use the system safely. Each personal member keeps their own account as secure as they use their password. Use two-factor authentication or an authenticator app. You can keep important documents on the server for future reference.

Most importantly, Ourwatch saves time and increases efficiency.

In Tower Hamlets we can run community groups, Neighbourhood Watch groups and even Ward Panels on Ourwatch and most importantly, our local police can jointly administer the system.

But, please be assured the police has no say on your community group, how you run it, who is a member, and they cannot determine your group’s leadership. But police can approve Neighbourhood Watch coordinators, watch groups and individual members just as the volunteer Ourwatch coordinator can separately also approve.

The less fractured police and community interaction is, the more efficient we can be, without stepping on each other’s toes. We can work together with partners, but never breach each others confidentiality and privacy.

If police use Ourwatch to run ward panels, then the membership is visible to all approved members involved and distribution of messages can be done by the Ward Panel chair, Vice-chair, secretary or the police from their separate accounts, using the same membership data via the admin panel. The ward panel can be made visible or kept invisible to the general public.

Documents, which are stored in the membership section by the Ward Panel chair cannot be seen by police or other admins. However, sent documents can be forwarded to a custom-made mailing list safely from the membership section only by those authorised within the group. Whilst police can send documents using the admin panel to send out messages. The two do not interact other than admins and police being able to see the membership.

It’s a win-win situation.