XN000022-1974-10-16 — Page 51

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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....