After working across all the police forces within England and Wales for the last decade and a half, Neighbourhood Watch are delighted to reach one million households who share their information with them on the membership database and messaging system, Neighbourhood Alert.
The central database for Neighbourhood Watch members and supporters, built and hosted by VISAV, has reached one million households, a record milestone. As a charitable movement, to be able to directly gather views with secure surveys and communicate crime prevention advice, local crime information, community cohesiveness, and support to vulnerable people, is an incredible achievement. According to the last member survey, (84,000 respondents, March 2021) on average, messages sent to members on the platform are forwarded or directly shared via social media, word of mouth, newsletters and meetings, with a further 18.4 people, giving the network a total national potential reach of 18.4 million people!
Consistent and reliable dialogue with households across England and Wales is fundamental to the running of Neighbourhood Watch locally and as a movement. It allows for seamless connection across England and Wales, including between local groups, individuals, and the central support team. Sharing resources, good practice, updates, and guidance through the Neighbourhood Alert database empowers Neighbourhood Watch members and supporters to make positive change in their community and take action to make their local area a better place to live.
John Haywards-Cripps, CEO of Neighbourhood Watch, said: “Being able to directly communicate, support and share advice and information with over one million households across England and Wales confirms that we are the authoritative voice on community-based crime prevention and are a recognised contributor to community health and wellbeing. Without the continuous support and expertise of VISAV we would not have been able to achieve this.”
Mike Douglas, Product Director of VISAV and co-founder of Neighbourhood Alert said: “It’s a testimony to modern policing to have 32 UK police forces working alongside Neighbourhood Watch to sign people up to the Neighbourhood Alert platform. People want local, timely, relevant information and the power of the system enables those local systems to combine and have an enormous national reach. The platform is known locally by different names to reflect the communities it serves but has a robust central, secure database. Data privacy is key to the continued success, and we know that members trust the platform, appreciate being able to use it for free, without the usual data privacy trade-off and they value the connection it provides with their local neighbourhood policing teams.”
Neighbourhood Watch is proud to continue its partnership of over a decade with VISAV. Since the partnership was first established, the Alert database has gone from strength to strength, and has continued to facilitate secure and smooth communication between organisations such as Neighbourhood Watch, the Police, Fire & Rescue Services, Action Fraud, the general public, and supporters