Peace patrol on the late-night streets
10:26am Monday 21st April 2008
Dozens of volunteers will soon head out at weekends to help keep the peace in two Sussex towns.
Dressed in blue jackets and baseball caps, the street pastors will be churchgoers who will patrol Heathfield and Crawley in pairs.
It is hoped the pastors will prove a calming presence, helping those in need and diffusing situations when trouble threatens.
A total of 16 volunteers will take to the streets and parks of Heathfield next month, while up to 40 will patrol trouble spots in Crawley by the end of the summer.
A group of seven churches in both towns have been working with Sussex Police to start the service.
Sarah Davis, who will be part of the street pastors team in Crawley, added: "We are not going out to get people into the church. It is not preaching.
"We could be giving out free food and take out our burger van. The church should know what is going on in our communities."
The schemes will be the national Street Pastors organisation's first two projects in Sussex.
Pastors will be expected to know the pubs, clubs and parties in the area and talk to everyone from drunken yobs to those just hanging around.
They patrol streets, parks and estates where bored youngsters turn to vandalism and violence for kicks.
Pastor schemes run in about 70 other towns and cities after being started in inner-city London in 2003 by the Rev Les Isaac, the director of the Ascension Trust.
Eustace Constance, the operations manager for the trust, said: "We run these schemes from Perth to Plymouth and it is the same result every time - the police, local authorities and the public always welcome it.
"It is about the public's perception of safety and we are out there to reassure people at the time of the week they are most vulnerable.
"Sometimes there is the potential for violence in the streets, especially at weekends. Often all people need is someone to gently coerce them away from trouble.
"In the five years these schemes have been running there has not been a single violent assault on a pastor."
Mr Constance said the scheme could be extended to Brighton and Hove and other places in Sussex.
The inspiration for the initiative came originally from Kingston, Jamaica, when churches banded together to take their values on to the streets.
The aim was to target those at risk of gang membership, drugs, guns and violence. In effect, street pastoring is a visible and more confrontational form of social work with a Christian flavour.
One of the inevitable criticisms levelled at the scheme is that the pastors are well-meaning Christians hopelessly out of their depth.
Yet others argue that pastors come from all walks of life - housewives, builders and doctors - and there is a good cross-section of ages and backgrounds.
Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Herbert, MP for Arundel and South Downs, said: "I support community action to help deal with crime and there are several successful pastor schemes.
"Any scheme with volunteers helping to deal with problems should be welcomed. However, no initiative like this should be allowed to replace police officers on the beat.
"The street pastors should supplement, not substitute, the police."
Volunteers will learn a range of skills, from disposing of used syringes to what to do when a fight breaks out.
Similar schemes in other areas have seen pastors hand out flipflops to women who cannot stand in their high heels and chocolate to those leaving pubs.
Alan Quirk, Crawley Borough Council's member for community engagement, said: "It is a good idea. We have to be careful these pastors are not seen as vigilantes and are approachable. The concept of trying to pull the community together should be welcomed.
"Hopefully people will see the pastors as someone they can talk to, trust and raise issues with without having to go to the police."
In more rural Heathfield, pastors are also likely to go to parks and other areas where youths congregate to drink.
But both police and the pastors insist the job of the new force is not crime-fighting but reassurance, support and advice.
Inspector Jon Brydon, from Sussex Police, who is involved in setting up the project, said: "We know where the hotspots are and the pastors will be sited in that vicinity.
"They are not our eyes and ears.
They have a separate identity and they are there to help and support.
"We want to break the idea that they are just another uniform on the street."
Do you think street pastors will help reduce crime?