Police to support this year’s National Neighbourhood Watch Week
Suffolk Police is supporting this year’s National Neighbourhood Watch Week, which runs from this Saturday to Sunday, June 17 to 25.
Neighbourhood Watch is a useful way in which communities can work together with the police to prevent, detect and reduce crime and antisocial behaviour. The message for this year’s awareness week is Connecting and Protecting Communities, with particular focus on raising awareness of scams.
Scams often target people in vulnerable situations and can come in many forms; emails, letters, telephone calls or in-person visits where rogue traders make false claims to con the victim out of money.
The national Neighbourhood Watch Network is working with the National Trading Standards Scams Team and, as part of the week, is encouraging its members to join Friends Against Scams to enable communities to talk about and understand scams, and to take a stand against them.
Alan Osborne, Community Safety Manager at Suffolk Police, said: “Scams often prey on the elderly and vulnerable, which can leave victims feeling more socially isolated as many choose against reporting them to their loved ones or to the police.
“We can all play a part in protecting ourselves, our families, friends and neighbours from falling victim to scams by raising awareness of them and how they work to defraud people.
“Being part of a Neighbourhood Watch Scheme builds a stronger community spirit and by knowing your neighbours, anyone suspicious becomes more much obvious. By working together, we can continue to keep Suffolk a safe place to live and work.”
There are a number of watch schemes in operation across Suffolk, which reflects both the rural and urban make-up of the county. You can find out more about each of the watch schemes by visiting: https://www.suffolk.police.u/advice/home-safety/watch-schemes.
For more information about Friends Against Scams, please visit: https://www.friendsagainstscams.org.uk.