Northampton Town Centre BID have formed a partnership with Northampton Business Crime Partnership (NBCP) to launch a new crime and ASB intelligence sharing app
Funded by the BID, Northampton Town Anti-Social Behaviour Reporting Scheme (NTARS) is a bespoke programme designed to enable Northampton town centre levy paying businesses to collate and share intelligence on anti-social behaviour and ‘low level crime’.
The system directly feeds into West Northamptonshire Council’s ASB Case management team and into NBCP, who are based within Campbell Square Police Station.
The information is used by the ASB Case Officer and Police and has a cross-flow of information and intelligence with Northamptonshire Police.
NTARS runs both on a computer and via an online (mobile phone) app. This means that if a business is a member of the scheme, all of its (relevant) staff can have access to the Website and app
Businesses can directly report instances of anti-social behaviour, including begging and street drinking, as well as ‘low level’ offences such as environmental criminal damage, graffiti and fly-tipping.
The system also allows businesses to report areas of rough sleeping with a view to encouraging earlier interventions from appropriate agencies.
Why has this been launched?
According to official statistics ASB in Northampton town centre is on the decline and this figure forms part of the basis of Police resource allocation and focus.
Business feedback though, along with general visibility on the streets, reveals that this figure is not an accurate reflection of what is actually happening.
In particular, rough sleepers, street drinkers and encampments on public and private land have become a major detraction for both customers and visitors alike. It has a financial impact to all businesses currently within the town centre, combined with a negative effect on growth and potential future investment in the town.
The Scheme will include
- The collation of business crime intelligence of ASB issues by the Council’s ASB Case Manager, for action and can lead to identification of prolific offenders and issuing of Community Protection Warnings (CPW), Community Protection Notices (CPN) & Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBO). If the terms of CPW, CPN or CBO include all or part of the BID area, ASB Offenders may be banned from all or part of the Town Centre. (Data sharing around Offenders needs to be managed extremely carefully)
- The system will create viewable ‘galleries’ of ASB offenders and be able to share with levy payers, (information and Intelligence around ASB and low-level Offenders especially the conditions around CPW’s, CPN’s and CBO’s.
- Public Realm Reporting also enables public realm issues such as Christmas lights, graffiti, damage to street furniture, fly-tipping to be auto-forwarded to the person responsible in the local authority.
- NTARS will also have DPA compliant Instant Messenger that will allow members in defined groups (e.g. streets) to send and receive messages and ‘push notifications’ with each other.
Through the current processes these issues can then be addressed on an individual basis and Criminal Orders applied when sufficient crime intelligence is collected
Levy payers can also report actionable Intelligence into the system. This includes static images or CCTV stills
Who can be a member of NTARS
Membership to NTARS is offered free to all fully paid up BID levy payers and voluntary members of the BID.
Any business in the BID area who is not a levy payer may apply to become a voluntary member of the BID (see separate application form) and then become a member of NTARS
Full training is provided and the BID will support you at every step of the way.
Download and read all about NTARS in our NTARS Booklet HERE.
