77
Wednesday, October 16, 1974
was as dangerous for the Government as it was unwelcome
to ordinary citizens, who were without means of influencing
conditions outside their own front doors.
Some of these committees are more effective than others,
but by and large they already cover a significant part of
the population. They have done much to discourage crime in
their own areas. In many cases they have installed alarm
systems, and engaged watchmen to patrol the premises, and
all in all they constitute a new deterrent to criminals that
can be made increasingly effective and is very welcome to
police and public alike.
I always leave meetings with Mutual Aid Committees
encouraged by the knowledge.that in this field attitudes
are changing fast, and that we have many good citizens
willing to give a lead on how the people of a neighbourhood
may help each other and help the community by making their
own areas safer, cleaner and better to live in.
We have always had in mind that the ultimate aim
was to develop regular policing on a neighbourhood basis,
with, in addition, separate forces deployed to attack crime
in accordance with strategic and tactical plans directed by
District and Divisional Commanders. For this we first
needed civilian neighbourhood organisations
-
we now have
them. We also needed more regular policemen available for
deployment - these too we are now beginning to have..
Finally we needed trained uniformed volunteers, that is to
say auxiliaries, from the neighbourhood to form a link between
the regular police and the civilian population. We are
/now beginning....