Mosque intercom is giving warnings to residents

A system used to call the faithful to prayer is now being used to give out crime prevention advice to householders.

The mosque on Katherine Street in Ashton operates a public address system in 250 homes. The intercom-style system is mainly used for religious purposes, but neighbourhood police officers are now using it to send out key crime reduction advice and information

"By working with the mosque these messages are also being translated into Urdu and Punjabi," said neighbourhood officer PC Mark Akers. "It might be something like, ‘we are looking for a white van’ and we go through all the details on the tannoy system.

"It’s all about working in partnership and involving the whole community. Our work with religious groups and charitable organisations has helped Home Watch to talk to members of the community who have been traditionally hard to reach."

Such work has helped the Ashton St Peter’s neighbourhood policing team win a £1,000 grant from the Neighbourhood and Home Watch Network. It will help a crime prevention project in St Peter’s ward.

The Ashton policing team’s work was selected as an example of best practice due to its expansion of Home Watch to include not just residents but also the wider community, such as religious groups, businesses, housing associations and charities.

Although St Peter’s already has a Home Watch scheme, the police and volunteer Home Watch co-ordinators saw that it had become dominated by a small group of residents and was perhaps in danger of losing momentum.

"We have broadened the scheme’s appeal," PC Akers added. "This has helped the group thrive and increased the opportunities to gather information as well as communicate more effectively with the community."