WATCHMEN OF THE NIGHT

‘Torquay is a busy environment, it's a busy town, and of course it has a vibrant busy night-time economy, particularly by the harbour. We want people to enjoy the facilities there, but the challenge we have been experiencing is high levels of crime.

I researched crime statistics during a 6 month period, and do you know what I found?

During the 6 month period when Torbay Street Pastors had been operating, I compared it with the year before - the same 6 months - over that very busy summer period.

What I found was that violent crime had fallen by a quarter , in fact during that 6 month period when Street Pastors had been operating, no robberies had taken place at all in Torquay city centre.

We had one fifth less burglaries from homes.

Vehicle crime had fallen by a quarter. All in that very focussed area where Street Pastors had been out on the streets working.

Now these are impressive reductions in crime by anybody's standard, and that's one of the reasons we are so supportive of Street Pastors.'

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