Your Neighbourhood Your Voice

PACT – Stands for Partners And Communities Together. It is a method, which allows the police and their partner agencies to engage with all elements of the community. Through PACT your neighbourhood policing team will identify the issues that effect you. With the community and partner agencies the top three priorities will be agreed, along with how everyone can work together to resolve them. It is important that the priorities chosen are ones that can be achieved.

In Devon and Cornwall crime is falling and it is one of the safest places in the country to live. However it is apparent that communities are concerned about what happens in their immediate area and this can create significant fear about the level of crime. Your neighbourhood team are there to identify the issues that concern your community and then work with you and partner agencies to address those issues. Their aim is to make every neighbourhood in Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly a place where the communities are safe and feel safe.

How does PACT work?

There are several elements to PACT. Neighbourhood teams may use all or some of these, depending on the type of neighbourhood and the issues the public identify.

PACT Environmental Visual Audit (EVA)

This is an inspection of all or part of a neighbourhood. It is undertaken by the community, police or partners or ideally jointly with two or all of these together. It is a simple process usually involving walking around the area recording on a form or with photographs the problems that need addressing.

PACT Surgeries.

These are advertised events held in neighbourhood locations. Residents can speak on a one to one basis with a member of the community team to discuss local issues.

PACT Public meetings.

These are advertised meetings in neighbourhood locations to allow large numbers of local residents to meet and discuss local issues. The meeting is usually structured to allow a wide range of issues to be raised followed by a process to agree, from these, three main priorities and how they should be resolved. 

PACT Panel meeting.

This is a meeting of community representatives, neighbourhood teams and representatives of partner agencies. It can be held after a public meeting or separately to discuss issues raised through one of the other processes. This meeting focuses on the detail of who will do what by when and also allows discussion of sensitive information that may not be suitable for an open public meeting.  

PACT Surveys.

These are simple surveys conducted with the public to identify local issues. These may be conducted by going door to door in a specific location. They could be conducted at a suitable location, such as in the high street or outside a shop or library. They could also be linked to a community event such as a village fair or sporting event.

PACT Postcards.

PACT postcards and post boxes are placed in prominent locations, such as post offices or a village shop. They are intended to allow those who are unable or do not want to attend meetings or surgeries to identify their concerns. Postcards are also useful in locations that are not suitable for other PACT methods, such as widely spread rural communities. Completed cards placed in the post boxes are collected regularly by the neighbourhood team.

PACT Response mailing.

These are pre addressed and postage paid returns that can be sent to the relevant neighbourhood team via the public mail system.

Web site

The web site has a “Contact us” option and issues of concern can be sent to the local neighbourhood team by this method.

It is likely that in any one area it will be necessary to use a combination of different methods to give a wide range of engagement opportunities to the community. An example of this may be the results of a survey being presented at a public meeting for consideration with the issues raised by those present. All of this information could then be considered by a PACT Panel to agree final priorities and actions.

Answers

A very important part of PACT is telling communities what has been done to deal with the priorities they have raised and the results. Where issues were raised at public meetings then this information would be provided at later meetings. Other methods of providing this information could be letters to houses in a street where a door to door survey identified the priorities or thorough the local media. Another source of this information is the neighbourhood policing web site. Each neighbourhood page displays the current priorities for that neighbourhood and the work that has been or will be done to deal with them.