A thumbs up to Fearless Francis: the guardian of Skerne Park
A few weeks back I delivered some leaflets in Darlington’s Skerne Park, which is not far from where I live. As a working class, trade unionist, ‘radical’ Conservative, I feel most at home on council estates like “Skernie” and its residents are the salt of the earth, and are proud of their estate.
Although my parents (a turner in an engineering factory and a secretary) owned their home back in Northern Ireland, I “grew up” on the nearby council estate, in many ways, when I was 16-17 and hung around with my friends, and got up to various acts of mischief. We wore baseball caps, mine said ‘Bad Boys’, but we were a harmless bunch of lads (and lasses) and we were certainly not a gang. We helped lonely old ladies with their shopping – we didn’t terrorize them.
Due, in my analysis, to Labour’s reality of ’soft on crime’ policies (despite empty rhetoric of ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’) – and the heartbreaking rise in poverty, worklessness and social inequality/immobility – anti social behaviour, rampant criminality and fear pervade many estates.
While Cllr Mike Barker has several concerns about one community-minded ’social entrepreneur’ and his innovative solution to anti social behaviour, I give a thumbs up to “Fearless Francis”, who through his firm Sparta Security Services, as the Northern Echo reports, has:
formed a “private police force” to tackle crime and disorder on the streets of a North-East town. “Fearless” Francis Jones and his firm, Sparta Security, will patrol parts of Darlington, responding to reports of anti-social behaviour and extinguishing trouble using non-violent techniques.
The trained doormen are offering residents of the Skerne Park and Eastbourne areas protection for a charge of £3.50 a week. Patrols will take place on foot and in a specially modified car.
The Sparta wardens will be uniformed and will carry cameras to capture footage that could be used in a court.
The Labour government, aided by the council in Darlington, have not dealt with criminality on Skerne Park and elsewhere. By offering security services to residents for a fee, Fearless Francis is delivering a community need: safety and the removal of fear, and without doubt a reduction in crime and anti social behaviour. After all, as Cllr Gill Cartwright points out, he is filling a gap in the market for which there is unmet demand because the council and police are not providing the security that they should. Such an innovative enterprise should be rolled out across Darlington and, indeed, in other estates all across the country.
That the government and council have failed the residents of Skerne Park on a basic need – safety – is a grim indictment on Labour politicians at national and local level. So what are they going to do about it? But, for now, we say thank you to Fearless Francis.
Armchair Sceptic
We were not a gang we helped old ladies home with the shopping, but we were not a gang. well good old Tory bull then..
I’m a unionist, not a Tory!
If you’re a Unionist does that mean you contribute to the deep sense of fear, outrage and humiliation that marks the annual incursions into the little streets of Portadown?
Certainly not. I have only ever been to Portadown once.
I know what ‘Armchair Skeptic” is talking about, I’m from Stranraer (SW Scotland) myself, grew up in the por side of town and lived in the East End of London. Now I live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. However, the streets here are not paved with gold either.
I say, the very best of luck to Francis Jones. The trend of security companies offering protective services to gated communities and neighbourhoods has been developing for sometime in the USA and Canada. Why should people be so surprised that this trend is now emerging in the UK? The ONLY reason that we see this sort of thing happening is due to one thing – crime.
Coppers spent most of their time in the nick filling out four hours of paperwork per crime and attending “diversity” courses. So who is on the streets? PCSO’s – plastic Bobbies with limited or no police powers at all. With political correctness all the rage, no police on the streets, agonisingly slow response times and liberal judges who let violent thugs go with a slap on the wrist, ordinary folks are getting desperate for help. If the police and the local council cannot or will not help, then they will look elsewhere.
I now own a security service here in Calgary where we find ourselves dealing with drug dealers, pimps, yobs and other assorted morons. The difference here is, we wear kevlar vests and carry batons and handcuffs. The police here are actually happy to let us get on with keeping the apartment buildings, housing estates and gated communities safe by dealing with most problems ourselves. We only call the cops when we want them to take somebody away (after we’ve handcuffed them). It works well here, and it WILL work in the UK if some kind of sensible partnership can be established between private security and the police to ensure that people are kept safe. Private security cannot and should not replace professional law enfgorcement. But, if things continue the way they are in the UK, then the police may find themselves increasingly marginalized in neighbourhoods that will be calling other (private) services to help keep them safe.
Bill Gibbons
Bill, your post demonstrates why we need a Canadian approach to crime reduction in the UK. The police could work in partnership with private security firms, who should also be allowed here to wear kevlar vests, carry handcuffs etc. It’s time we take a tough approach to criminality.
By the way, I know Stranraer well, often going home on the ferry from there. Ayr and Glasgow are old stomping grounds of mine too.