Bedfordshire Police community teams alongside Police and Crime Commissioner Festus Akinbusoye attended the Bedford Neighbourhood Watch quarterly meeting this week.

The PCC joined Councillor Colleen Atkins from Bedford Borough and local community policing teams at the event in Bedford.

Colleen Atkins, chair of Bedford & District Neighbourhood Watch, said: “I was pleased to welcome 70 Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinators to the first Neighbourhood Watch Quarterly meeting of 2024.

“I’d like to thank all the guest speakers who contributed so much to this successful event. We all benefitted from the advice and information from the excellent presentations. I look forward to our future meetings being as productive.”

This is part of the commissioner’s direct engagements with volunteers and the local community.

The PCC said: “I will continue to support and advocate for local people and businesses who want to work with Bedfordshire Police in keeping our county safer.

“These meetings give the volunteers and the community policing teams the opportunity to spend time taking about local issues and concerns.

“As PCC, I am pleased to fund Bedford Neighbourhood Watch as I do other watch schemes across the county. My direct engagement with and accountability to local people continues”.

Seventy members of Bedford Neighbourhood Watch and residents heard from the police about their vision for community policing in Bedford.

They updated residents on the recent already successful operation to crackdown on retail crime.

Residents also heard from the force about organised crime and scams and what to look out for.

For more information about Neighbourhood Watch and other volunteer schemes in Bedfordshire visit the force’s website.