Student creates branding for Millfield community campaign

A new community-focussed campaign to rescue and regenerate an area most affected by organised crime has been adopted in central Peterborough and branded by a local student.

The initiative, which has been named ‘Alliance’, aims to regalvanise the local community and ensure a safer, better place for residents and businesses by tackling organised crime.

Alliance has been underway as part of the Home Office’s three-phase ‘Clear, Hold, Build’ initiative since last year, however, it has recently been given a local identity by graphic design students from Peterborough College.

It uses a combination of targeted high-visibility police operations and covert policing tactics alongside activity from partners and input from residents to protect communities and prevent organised crime groups (OCGs) from operating.

Inspector Lyndsay Mylchreest, Neighbourhood Policing Inspector for Peterborough, said: “Parts of Millfield, New England and Park Ward in Peterborough were identified as having high-harm crime and as such this area was chosen to pilot the national initiative here in Cambridgeshire.

“Having spoken with the community, so that being community leaders and key individuals that we work with, they very much wanted the branding to be professional and to come from the community.

“So having looked at various options, we identified that we had a really valuable resource here on the doorstep of that project area, and we approached Peterborough College to assist us.

“Coming into the college and approaching the graphic design students has been an absolute pleasure. They’ve been really accommodating and what it has done for us is identify opportunities for us to support students in the college, not just on the graphic design course but other courses as well.

“We know there is a shortfall of opportunities for young people in the city, in terms of practical experience being available, so we would love to be able to develop that.”

Following a briefing, students submitted their designs for consideration by community leaders and partners and a winning design which encapsulated the community cohesion, focus and ambition of the project, was chosen – ‘Alliance – Building Better Together’.

Max Pogson, 23, who created the winning branding, said: “I thought of Alliance because it’s a word that encompasses everything they were trying to do, and then I built the tagline into it to show not going backwards and starting from scratch, but building on where we’re at and making things better for the community as a whole.

“The logo came about because I was trying to think of how I could represent people and communities without specifically saying the police, specific religions and locations, to make it as inclusive as I possibly could, and I came up with this star of people that interlock as if it was bonding the community together.”

Alliance is a long-term plan involving agencies such as Cambridgeshire police, Peterborough City Council and various other public sector organisations, working alongside voluntary and community groups to build a better future for areas most affected by organised crime.

The strategy sees police ruthlessly pursue OCG members using all available powers and tactics to clear an area; continue activity to hold the location so another OCG can’t take control in the vacuum; and then work with residents and partners to build the community into a more prosperous area for people to live, work and visit and one less susceptible to being exploited by OCGs.

In an initial wave of activity, police have carried out multiple operations with a strong focus on organised crime, drug dealing and exploitation, which have covered the Alliance area – Operation Hypernova, Operation Tsunami and Operation Hypernova 2.

Inspector Mylchreest added: “Clear, Hold, Build is an exciting new framework which galvanises and enables all agencies involved in tackling organised crime in the heart of our communities to come together to deliver a whole-system approach.

“As the police, we are traditionally very good at the pursue element of our work, but this approach emphasises the importance of collaboration and puts the community at the heart of the response, building long-term resilient communities where harm brought about by an OCG is not tolerated.”

National Police Chief’s Council’s Serious and Organised Crime, Local Programme lead, Detective Superintendent Andy Farrell, said: “The national roll out of Clear, Hold, Build will help empower communities to stand united in the fight against serious and organised crime.

“Areas which have already implemented this initiative have seen successes ranging from dramatic reductions in ASB and violent crime to stronger, more enhanced partnerships with key community stakeholders and grass roots organisations.

“Clear, Hold, Build brings this all together. Through police led disruption, key offenders are targeted and removed, allowing the community to come together and have their say on how to move forward. While police play a key role in bringing offenders to justice, partnership work and community cooperation are essential to the success of an area reclaiming its identify and moving forward, free from harm, exploitation and the threat of future criminality.”

Further information on Clear, Hold, Build can be found on the College of Policing website.