SNT – Tower Hamlets Neighbourhood Watch Association

Safer Neighbourhoods Team of the Year Award

For those who make a significant and sustained contribution to policing in their local communities.

Tower Hamlets suffered an increase in anti-social behaviour (ASB) and drug offending, which had a negative impact on local communities. The team made it their mission to improve the situation and connect with those hard-to-teach communities, in the densely populated borough that is within five percent of the most deprived areas nationally.

In 2021, the Tower Hamlets Homes Policing Team developed and led on several operations including Operation Mizuna, which used data to identify hotspots and drive action. They chaired multi-agency partnership and residents’ meetings, initiated numerous diversionary schemes for young people with partners, and piloted modern technology to improve information sharing pathways.

With partners, the team provided housing for the homeless and support to drug addicts. Their efforts over six months saw 50% reduction in ASB and in 2021 they seized £108,000 total value of drugs and cash, obtained 12 civil inunctions, made 231 arrests and seized 80 offensive weapons. Their action improved public confidence and the quality of life for others.

Their methods are now being adopted across Hackney and Tower Hamlets and beyond!

For the general public the engagement bus is most prominent to see in Neighbourhoods.

Public engagement event at Cambridge Heath Road in the summer of 2022.

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.

approval markings on Neighbourhood Watch groups

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.