‘E-watch’ out for criminals

Police plan to use e-mail to warn Saddleworth residents against becoming victims of local crime.

“E-watch” has been designed specifically to engage the community in policing efforts and speedily inform householders of urgent local crime information.

The Saddleworth West and Lees neighbourhood policing team, which has set up the database, is now urging locals to join the network to benefit from the digital notices which can be targeted to a single street.

PCSO Mark Detheridge came up with the scheme, now being piloted in the area.

He said: “In older schemes you would get lots of information not relevant to your exact area.

“However, with this we can target a particular street if there was a burglary there for example.

“The scheme is in its infancy as we collect addresses but hopefully people will start to receive the alerts and be interested in reading them, knowing that they are relevant to their area.”

Residents signing up to the database will also receive monthly updates on policing activity in Saddleworth as well as upcoming community events.

To join the scheme, simply send an e-mail to saddleworthandlees.npt@gmp.police.uk.

Include ‘E-watch’ in the subject of your message with your e-mail address and contact number.