The local areas in which Shomrim volunteers regularly patrol within, has seen a dramatic decrease in crime over the past 5 months, with 143 less victims of crime in February 2014 (total of 562 reported crimes) compared with October 2013 (total of 705 reported crimes), meaning that you are now more than 20% less likely to become a victim of crime within the local area.

Vehicle Crime has seen the largest drop, from 71 offences reported in October 2013 to 41 offences reported in February 2014; this makes it a massive decrease of over 42% and 30 less victims (of Motor Vehicle Crime) a month. During these 5 months, Shomrim volunteers directly assisted in 20 arrests for Vehicle Crime offences, by witnessing and reporting these incidents to the police as and when they occurred, following the offender and directing in local police officers to arrest the perpetrators immediately after committing these offences. Shomrim members also provided many written witness statements where necessary, and attended court on several occasions. One notable success was an 8 months prison sentence handed by the Courts to one of Hackney’s most prolific repeat offenders.

At a recent Shomrim event in January of this year, the Hackney Police Borough Commander – Chief Superintendent Matthew Horne commented during his speech: “My challenge to my officers is that I want their detection rate for Motor Vehicle Theft to be up with Shomrim’s”.

Shomrim coordinator Chaim Hochhauser praised the great work of Shomrim volunteers, by saying: “Shomrim volunteers give away many hours a day to patrol the local areas, their work has definitely made a big and notable difference”.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)