Shirley residents pay for private security firm Atraks (From This is Hampshire)

Shirley residents pay for private security firm Atraks

10:30am Thursday 6th August 2009 in

By Matt Smith » Politics and business reporter

Skip social links
Print
Email
Comments(66)

MORE than 300 Southampton residents have agreed to pay for private “cops” to protect them from crime.

And bosses behind the controversial new community patrol service hope many more will follow after a free three-day trial which gets under way in Shirley today.

Four uniformed security officers equipped with handcuffs and stab vests will be showing residents what they can expect if they agree to pay £3.15 a week or a one-off annual payment of £163.80.

The full Atraks service will include dedicated patrols of eight officers up to 60 times every 24 hours in every community that signs up, special patrols outside schools, escorts to shops and banks, emergency response to alarms and other incidents, and dog handlers to disperse street gangs.

View Shirley Community Patrols in a larger map

Atraks boss Dave MacLean said his officers would be patrolling 18 hours a day during the trial and would “neutralise”

threats to residents using powers of citizen arrest where necessary.

He said they would also be responding to calls from Shirley residents, from allaying fears over groups of youths to escorting the vulnerable.

Mr MacLean said Shirley’s diverse community provided a good testing ground.

Responding to police claims that crime in Shirley was down 7.8 per cent since April, Mr MacLean said it was “still too high”.

He said 337 Shirley residents had already become Atraks members, setting up regular payments, and a further 1,754 said they wanted to join when the service starts.

However, Mr MacLean said no money would be debited until the scheme went ahead. Around three-quarters of residents in a particular community need to sign-up.

The Atraks service, which is independent from the police and council, has come under criticism from a city MP and a senior councillor who branded its marketing tactics “scaremongering”.

But Mr MacLean said: “We hope that people will be able to make up their own minds and will see this is something that will make them feel safe.

“Prevention of crime is what we are all about.”

A police spokesman said they remained “neutral”

about the Atraks service, which will cost more than the £2.73 per week the average Hampshire household pays for real cops.

Test MP Alan Whitehead said: “It still appears their offer is based on exaggerating both a fear of crime and their own legal and practical powers in responding to concerns.

I remain of the view that a paid vigilante service is not the best way to ensure that our communities are kept safe.”

The trial will run each day from noon to 6am.

Further trials are planned across the city.

■ If you live in Shirley and need assistance from Atraks call 07912 109999.

Comments(66)

Ken Hutchinson says...
10:42am Thu 6 Aug 09

I wonder about the legalities of using dogs to disperse and placing individuals in handcuffs by those who have no actual power of arrest. These chaps are sureley leaving themselves vulnerable to complaints of assault etc. by the person/people they are "neutralising".