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ABSTRACT
The Tilley Awards for Problem-Oriented Policing 'recognise and reward the most intelligent, courageous and effective approaches to dealing with the problems police encounter on the streets' (Home Office website). They are open to the police and crime and disorder reduction partnerships. Entrants have to submit a description of their project and its achievements. One winning entrant's submission is reproduced here, and the next two issues will feature the other winners' submissions.
KEYWORDS
fear of crime; media; CDRP; community televison; public reassurance
THE PROBLEM: HELL-ON-SEA HASTINGS
Once a popular seaside resort among wealthy Victorians, Hastings fell into decline, reaching a level of deprivation that in 1994 saw the government grant the town assisted area status.
While it is true that Hastings has suffered high crime rates, the media spotlight honing in on the town's socio-economic challenges and serious incidents, has exacerbated the perception that Hastings is crime-ridden and unsafe.
Hastings Borough Council's (HBC) Citizens' Panel Surveys and the Hastings CDRP's annual fear of crime surveys over the last few years reveal that at least a third of respondents each year feel unsafe in their neighbourhood, and in the town centre, due to reports of crime in the media.
With headlines in the national press such as 'Hellon-sea, the lost resort', 'Suicide black spot of the 90s' and 'Amid the decay and despair, ordinary families desperate to find a way out', Hastings has found it hard to shake its reputation as a town plagued by junkies, perverts and criminals, a magnet for the jobless and mentally ill (The Sun, 1997), home to drug addicts and social drop-outs (Mirror, 1997), the suicide capital of Britain (Daily Mail, 1997) and the last stop for the poor, the maladjusted, the lonely (Daily Mail, 1999).
Incidents such as the murder of BiIMe-Jo Jenkins in 1997, the shooting of James Ashley during a police raid in 1998, and the kidnapping of two 10-year-old girls in 1999, led to much of this media interest. In addition to national press, a (if not the) key opinion former in the town is the hostile and sensationalist local newspaper, which has replayed such stories at every opportunity ever since.
The Hastings Observer sells 21,500 copies per week and its website attracts 200,000 hits per...