With the festive season almost upon us, the High Street is starting to fill with shoppers looking for the ideal gifts. Sadly this can sometimes coincide with an increase in theft and crime. Huntingdonshire Business Against Crime (HBAC) is working with partners to ensure that everyone can ‘Shop Local, Shop Safe’ this festive season. Monday 26th October 2020 sees the start of a week-long campaign aimed at raising awareness within town centres.
The HBAC team will be joined by Huntingdon First, St Ives Town Initiative, St Neots Town Council, and local Police Community Support Officers throughout the week in various locations. The strong focus for this campaign will be to highlight the importance of keeping your possessions safe whilst shopping, reporting any suspicious activity and working together as a community to reduce crime.
Huntingdonshire Business Against Crime Scheme manager explains “Huntingdonshire is a very safe place to live with a great community feel however this time of year can see a small increase in the amount of personal thefts such as handbags and purses. To support shoppers and retailers we will be raising awareness to highlight this type of crime, and by making small changes we will help you to keep your belongings safe.
Whilst HBAC’s main focus is retail crime we thought we would approach this awareness campaign from both directions. Working with retailers to use the HBAC two-way radio which links with Huntingdonshire District Council CCTV, Police and other retailers to report incidents and suspicious activity, but also helping to support our shoppers by handing out free purse bells, purse cables and advice in the following towns:”
St Ives – Monday 26th October 2020
St Neots – Tuesday 27th October 2020
Huntingdon – Wednesday 28th October 2020
Now more than ever, it is very easy for people to become distracted, whilst finding your mask or ensuring you’re socially distanced. Let’s work together to help support the most vulnerable and ensure that everyone can ‘Shop Local, Shop Safe’.
HBAC is a non-profit making organisation that has been working with local and national retailers since 2004 to reduce crime and disorder. Please email [email protected] if you would like more information about becoming a member of your local business crime partnership.