The story behind the BH6-CAT Facebook page and how it is helping the Southbourne community fight back.

Social Media can be a funny old thing, but as we know, it can be a powerful thing as well. I wanted to highlight what we have done in our little community of Southbourne in Dorset, and this model can be repeated across the country at no expense, besides the admin time.

Southbourne, or SoBo as it is affectionately known locally, has a great community feel to the high street, the shops, the residents and local events. Two recent things have come together in prompting the formation of the BH6-CAT group page on Facebook.

The SoBo page has over 5000 members now, most of which live in Southbourne but many more who visit and have connections in the area, that would love to keep in touch with what’s happening. People have felt that crime has been on the increase. Looking at the statistics produced by the Police, this is sadly true and not just perception any more. Because of the strong community feeling, people want to help to combat this and to be more aware.

The second thing was that a cat got banned from a local convenience store. No big deal you might think. As one of the administrators, I know sometimes it can be difficult to get traction on some posts where we need to spread news and information fast and wide. Even discussions on defibrillators for the area had lower than expected interactions and that was mostly from the usual participants. But wait, a cat gets banned from the local store gets 15,000 likes, 650 comments and 11,000 shares. It really did, as well as onto the Bournemouth Echo website, BBC news site and national papers.

So, as a tongue in cheek nod to the little furry pet I came up with the idea to create the BH6-CAT page, to act as a separate place for people to report criminal or suspicious activity. Obviously we encourage people to contact Police over 999 or 101 calls where appropriate.

By having a separate group page, it can be seen more clearly because the posts are not lost amongst the general activity of the community page, but it serves as a cleaner log of reports that residents and the Police can refer to.

I recently met the Dorset Police Crime Commissioner, Martyn Underhill, who seemed impressed by the level of engagement we have and will be asking the communications groups within the Police force to connect to us.

Another reason to just focus on BH6, was just to make it more focussed on this particular area as having it cover the whole of Bournemouth, people may have to wade through too many posts before finding something relevant. If people give up, then it loses its value.

What I am suggesting is that this model could be easily replicated throughout the UK as all it relies on is a Facebook page and focus it on a postcode prefix. Yes, I know it is dependent on people being on Facebook, but it does seem to have the largest reach and equally, information could be shared onto Twitter and other platforms.

So, if you love your area and have time, then why not set up a similar CAT (Crime Alert Tool) project where you live.