Brighton & Hove’s taxi/PH trade help police reduce violent crime.

Following years of the ‘them and us’ approach between the taxi/PH trade and the police in Brighton & Hove, the last six months has seen a united front which has help reduce violent crime by 7%, whereas the rest of the UK has seen a rise of 11%.

Inspector Bill Whitehead said some had considered the city a no-go area: “Not anymore. There has been a dramatic improvement and the city is now one of the safest places. We are pleased with the statistics but not complacent and we want to do better”. Mr Whitehead finished by saying that much of the success was due to partnership between police, the council, pubs and clubs, and the taxi and private hire trades.

As happens throughout the country come closing time, thousands of people flood the streets looking for transport home. The sensible amongst us avoid this time and those places like the plague. Who needs dented doors, the grief from the queue jumpers, idiots lying in the road, to negotiating mass brawls, when there is plenty of work elsewhere? In a effort to address some of these problems, and help clear the streets the police have financed a number of community police officers (backed up with a van load or two) to help bring some sort of order to the busy ranks.

This has led to otherwise reluctant drivers clearing those ranks and getting the idiots home before they do any damage. It also gets the vulnerable home before they fall prey to those same idiots.

Linked Radios
Another welcome initiative by the police is the installation of radios in taxi offices, directly linked to the CCTV control rooms. Then if drivers either get into, or see trouble, the CCTV centre can be alerted and that trouble can be recorded and the police asked to attend.

Jean Smith, violent crime reduction officer, introduced this Night Safe operation, which also links the radios with the pubs and clubs. She said, “now if trouble makers are around, word can be spread and drivers can be made aware without delay”.

Welcoming this initiative, a spokesman for the local private hire association summed it up quite eloquently by saying “about time to, why doesn’t it happen everywhere?”. Quite.

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