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There is a new recruit in town helping the police sniff out bad behaviour.
We have pledged to part-fund a police drugs dog, Monty. A dedicated police officer works with Monty to patrol areas of Coventry, including where we have homes, to detect traces of drugs either by carrying out random patrols or at identified locations following reports of anti-social behaviour (ASB) from residents.
Back in 2009 Monty’s predecessor helped us secure the closure of a crack house. More generally, however, Monty helps us to reassure communities that we take drugs crimes seriously, as well as working as a visible deterrent to residents not to use their property for criminal drugs purposes.
As a national leader in ASB, Whitefriars Housing has formed strong working partnerships with the police, Coventry City Council’s neighbourhood management team and is a key player in the Coventry Community Safety Partnership, which brings housing associations together with organisations to tackle community issues.
Whitefriars Housing’s specialism in ASB is being shared across WM Housing Group.
Our focus is on nuisance prevention. Recently we purchased sound equipment to monitor the level of noise nuisance. The benefit of this for us is not only that we can deploy resources to obtain supporting evidence of sound pollution, but we can also use the equipment to prove to some who complain that the sound their neighbours make is within tolerable levels, which often encourages better local relationships.
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We are also providing a city-wide neighbour mediation service, which is successfully used not only by our own customers, but also by residents across all tenures. Another service supported by Whitefriars is the family intervention project, which helps families struggling with their behaviour look at the root causes whilst providing high level support and taking any appropriate enforcement action. This is helping troubled families to turn the corner and maintain their tenancies.
Gail Cooper, anti-social behaviour manager, said: “Whitefriars is a key player within Coventry’s Community Safety Partnership and we recognise the importance of working collaboratively to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour. Whether we are working with colleagues in the council and the police to decrease burglary in hotspots, or operating with other social landlords to provide city-wide representation within national initiatives, there’s no doubt that co-ordinated multi-disciplinary action is the best way to combat crime and nuisance behaviour.”
For more details on our anti-social behaviour work, email Gail Cooper, our anti-social behaviour manager.
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