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Community safety

Crime and Disorder Act 1998

The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 received Royal Assent in July 1998, and places a duty on Local Authorities and the Police to work in partnership to develop and implement a strategy to reduce crime and disorder in their local areas. A number of other agencies including the Probation Service, Health Authority and Police Authority are required to co-operate with the two responsible authorities. Working with these other agencies, the Local Authority and Police have to:

• conduct and publish an audit of local crime and disorder, taking account of the views of local people, and publish the findings
• determine priorities for action
• devise and publish a strategy which tackles these priority problems and includes objectives and targets
• monitor progress, fine tuning the strategy as required
• repeat the process every three years.

In doing this, they must take account of the various strategic plans of other organisations to help ensure that resources are used in the most efficient and effective manner. The overall aims of the legislation are, therefore, to ensure that the responsible authorities, together with their partners:

• develop cogent crime reduction strategies
• which enjoy broad based support
• and which are put into practice.

Community Safety Partnership

The Calderdale Community Safety Partnership, which was first established in 1992, as a branch of the Crime Concern Trust Ltd., was recognised in September 1998 to meet the requirements of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.

During 2004 the Partnership was re-structured and is now called the Safer Communities Partnership, incorporating the work of Community Safety, Drug and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT) and the Youth Offending Team (YOT).

The Partnership is overseen by a Partnership Board whose membership includes senior representatives from Calderdale Council, West Yorkshire Police, National Probation Service, Calderdale Primary Care Trust and West Yorkshire Police Authority.

An Executive Group, which is made up of senior managers from the partner agencies, reports to the Partnership Board and is responsible for the implementation of the Strategy.

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