City centre businesses in Stirling are being urged to sign up for a new reporting system designed to tackle rising problems with antisocial behaviour.
The initiative is being implemented by Go Forth Stirling after complaints from traders in the city about crime and antisocial behaviour.
Stirling’s Business Improvement District (BID) has joined an antisocial behaviour working group to tackle youth disorder and is also running a series of training sessions this month to help businesses use a new online reporting portal.
The SentrySIS system, run by the Residents Against Crime (RAC) initiative, sends out real-time alerts when thefts and other incidents are happening across the city and also allows business owners to report incidents to warn others and create evidence logs to help police.
It is a free system for traders, with the BID also covering the cost of RAC membership for independent businesses in the zone so they can benefit from the intelligence-based system which will offer alerts about situations or individuals to be wary of.
The first of the training sessions took place on Tuesday and Wednesday this week and attracted a good response from a handful of local businesses based in the city.
Further sessions are planned for Tuesday and Thursday next week (February 14 and February 16) –with Go Forth Stirling encouraging traders to get involved and see an uptick in usage for the RAC system.
Go Forth Stirling project director Danielle McRorie-Smith said: “Like all city and town centres, Stirling has issues with youth crime which seems to
have increased since the pandemic and lockdowns.
“We want to highlight the fact that businesses are not always reporting the issues they encounter which means police officers and youth teams don’t have the data they need to support the allocation of additional resources to tackle anti-social behaviour.
“So, we’re reminding our traders to make use of their access to the SentrySIS system and to actively contribute to it by logging any instances of ASB they encounter.
“It’s all part of the BID’s remit to help create a more welcoming city centre environment for businesses, shoppers and residents.”
The latest initiative follows Operation Steadfast, a police operation covering the Christmas and New Year period where police maintained a high presence in the city centre in an effort to deter criminality over those busy weeks.
Retailers Against Crime is a national crime partnership which aims to detect and prevent crime by sharing information on local and travelling offenders with members.
Ms McRorie-Smith added: “It’s an innovative approach to compiling statistics and information regarding crime and antisocial behaviour in Stirling and one which provides an evidence-gathering tool supplying important data to Police Scotland to help them fight crime.
“Traders can use the system, via a phone or desktop, to immediately log crimes and concerns so fellow shopkeepers are aware of what’s happening nearby and can react accordingly.
“It’s a vital tool to tackle antisocial behaviour in Stirling and contribute to the overall sense of safety and security in the city and the more traders who use the reporting system the more effective it will be.”
