In his regular column for the Hereford Times, Herefordshire police commander Edd Williams explains why believes a new messaging service will help the police and public combat crime together

DO you want to know what’s going on in your area? Well, now you can by signing up to our new messaging service called Neighbourhood Matters.

Our communities are active participants in helping to prevent and detect crime and anti-social behaviour, and we know that by working together we can make a real difference.

Public safety, crime prevention and protection of the vulnerable cannot be accomplished by the police alone. It takes effective partnership working and strong community relationships.

It is only by the police, our partners and the public working together that we can build resilient and safe communities, and both reduce and prevent crime.

Our Local Policing Charter, launched in March 2021, outlines how we will ensure we provide a visible policing presence and how, using local engagement, social media and new digital channels, we will create further opportunities for dialogue so the public can raise concerns, provide feedback, be involved and help shape policing.

Neighbourhood Matters will help us to work with the public and build strong community relationships.

If you sign up to Neighbourhood Matters, you decide who you want to hear from and the type of alerts you want to receive.

You'll be getting information on exactly what’s happening in your area and what is being done about it. You'll also hear about positive police action, good news stories and be able to play an active part in helping us with our public appeals.

To sign up go to www.neighbourhoodmatters.co.uk/#SignUp

It’s free, takes less than five minutes to sign up and is a great way to know what’s going on in your area.

You won’t receive any spam e-mails, you can reply to messages received and contact your local policing team. Go on….sign up today.