Council hits crime via Facebook

A council partnership has started a Facebook group to discuss crime in a Kent town after a local man's site attracted 2,148 members in a month.

Thanet Community Safety Partnership, set up the group in response to Colin Perry's page, which he started after he was mugged in Ramsgate in August.

A spokesman said the partnership was surprised at the support for the group.

"We were quite staggered really at the amount of support for action done to reduce crime," he said.

"There are 2,000 local residents in Colin's group, so we got involved and started speaking to some of them.

"We felt that this is a really excellent way to engage with local people on the matters that affect them," he added.

Mr Perry said he started his group because it was a more personal way of discussing crime.

"The reason for using Facebook is to get a message out there to people that I know that use it.

"I know people that live around that area and people pay more attention if they identify with the victim."

Thanet Community Safety Partnership is a statutory body which includes district and county councils, police, and fire and rescue services.

Mr Perry's group is called Violent crime in Thanet is in fact getting out of hand, while the council group is called Thanet Community Safety.

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