Crime Reduction - Helping to Reduce Crime in Your Area

The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 will by now be familiar territory if you are involved in community safety. You have carried out the Audits and developed your Strategies; now comes the challenge of implementation.

So far, Section 17 of the Act has received less attention than other parts of the Act, despite its immense scope and potential in requiring authorities to consider crime and disorder reduction in the exercise of all their duties. According to Home Office guidance, Section 17 means that ‘each local authority [should] take account of the community safety dimension in all of its work. All policies, strategies, plans and budgets will need to be considered from the standpoint of their potential contribution to the reduction of crime and disorder’.

This briefing takes a practical look at the opportunities afforded by Section 17, drawing on examples of good practice from around the country. It looks in detail at how authorities can make crime and disorder reduction part of their core business and build it into corporate plans and departments’ activities - in other words, how to 'mainstream' community safety.

Section 17 states:‘…it shall be the duty of each authority ... to exercise its various functions with due regard to the likely effect of the exercise of those functions on, and the need to do all it reasonably can to prevent, crime and disorder in its area’

Who should read this briefing?

The briefing is designed to be of interest to:

• local authorities, especially staff and councillors involved in planning and delivering local authority services

• the other groups covered by Section 17 (police authorities, National Park Authorities and the Broads Authority)

• others working in partnerships to reduce crime and disorder, such as probation services, health authorities, voluntary and community groups.