Go Forth Stirling is urging local businesses to help tackle issues of crime and antisocial behaviour in the city by using crime-fighting reporting tools to highlight any incidents.
The BID has joined an Anti-Social Behaviour Working Group to tackle youth disorder in Stirling and is running training sessions to help businesses use the Retailers Against Crime (RAC) reporting system SentrySIS. Last year, Go Forth joined forces with RAC to give independent traders free access to the system which sends real-time alerts when thefts and other crimes are happening in the city.
The scheme also allows business owners to report incidents so they can warn others and create evidence logs to help police detect offences. Go Forth Project Director Danielle McRorie-Smith implemented the initiative after receiving complaints from Stirling traders about antisocial behaviour.
The BID covers the costs of RAC membership for independent business owners in the bid zone so they can benefit from a cloud-based intelligence-gathering system to log incidents and receive immediate alerts about situations or individuals to be aware of.
Now, they are being offered training to highlight the benefits of the system and encourage an uptake in usage. Ms McRorie-Smith said: “Like all city and town centres, Stirling has issues with youth crime which seems to have increased since the pandemic and lockdowns. “We want to highlight the fact that businesses are not always reporting the issues they encounter which means police officers and youth teams don’t have the data they need to support the allocation of additional resources to tackle anti-social behaviour.
So, we’re reminding our traders to make use of their access to the SentrySIS system and to actively contribute to it by logging any instances of ASB they encounter. We’ve organised four online training sessions – Tuesday February 7, Wednesday February 8, Tuesday 14th Feb at 10.30am, Thursday 16 th Feb at 1.30pm – to help traders get to grips with the system which is easy to use and extremely effective. It’s all part of the BID’s remit to help create a more welcoming city centre environment for businesses, shoppers and residents.”
Retailers Against Crime is a national crime partnership which aims to detect and prevent crime by sharing information on local and travelling offenders with members. Stirling businesses can access various benefits including its SentrySIS logging system.
Ms McRorie-Smith added: “It’s an innovative approach to compiling statistics and information regarding crime and antisocial behaviour in Stirling and one which provides an evidence-gathering tool supplying important data to Police Scotland to help them fight crime.
Traders can use the system, via a phone or desktop, to immediately log crimes and concerns so fellow shopkeepers are aware of what’s happening nearby and can react accordingly. It’s a vital tool to tackle antisocial behaviour in Stirling and contribute to the overall sense of safety and security in the city and the more traders who use the reporting system the more effective it will be.”
