ST HELENS Council and Merseyside Police are celebrating after successfully bidding for £241,000 Government funding over the next two years to tackle crime.

The money will be used to launch a borough-wide pilot scheme to reduce victimisation and is linked to the Crime and Disorder Reduction Strategy.

The project was one of 103 successful 'Invest to Save' bids announced by Mo Mowlem, Minister for the Cabinet Office, beating off stiff competition from nearly 500 other bids.

It will develop a multi-agency approach to reducing victimisation and repeat crimes by identifying potential victims and by analysing the patterns and characteristics of victimisation. Information will be stored in specially-programmed secure data bases so that potential victims can be quickly identified and moves taken to avoid a crime taking place by early intervention.

Council leader, Marie Rimmer, commented: "A major element of the scheme will be to develop partnerships that addresses the needs of victims and to build crime prevention into the system. All too often help is held up because of the different methods of working by agencies involved. This will offer a touch-of-the-button information scheme so that speedy action can be taken when tackling crime."

Superintendent Richard Williams of St Helens Police added: "Crime reduction must be central to the work of all public agencies because of the impact of crime on the quality of life. The proposed system will bring this about.

" It will provide the best methods of identifying victims, which I believe is a necessary part of a quality response to the public.

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