HAVE you ever seen the words PACT and wondered what they stand for and what they mean?

There are numerous bodies all using the same acronym ranging from animal charities to organisations supporting prisoners.

In police forces across the country these letters stand for Partners and Communities Together.

Each local policing team – in Worcester there are 11 – has its own PACT process.

Although there are different formulas used by these teams their end goal is the same – to identify policing priorities and address them.

“It is about low level issues,”

Inspector Andy Smith said.

“The re-occurring themes are about speeding, littering, dog fouling and low level anti-social behaviour.”

The first option available to police is to hold surgeries where residents can drop in and speak to police officers one-to-one about their concerns.

Alternatively, police can use public meetings to find out people’s concerns.

There are still some areas in the city which hold public meetings, but generally these are avoided by police.

“If you wanted to speak to the police would you want to get home and go out again in the evening and go to the community centre to put your point across for a few hours?”

Mr Smith said.

Local police prefer the survey method which involves knocking on people’s doors and speaking to them about their problems.

“Experience shows surveys are the best means of getting people to engage with us,” Mr Smith said.

Policing teams will split their patch into several areas and aim to survey at least 50 houses and they will keep going until they have a sample.

“It has a really good return rate in terms of finding out people’s views because over the course of a year you look to survey at least twice, so you could be calling on 500 people in a year,” Mr Smith said.

Police can also carry out environmental visual audits which involve looking at what is good and bad in the area.

Once all views have been collected a meeting is held by the PACT panel.

The panel is made up of police officers, city and county councillors and other key people in the community, who meet on a regular basis.

Together they decide the PACT priorities and the relevant person or people will deal with the issue.

The aim is to resolve the priority before the next meeting several months later.

Mr Smith believes PACT has done a lot for communities in Worcester.

“The measure is at community level,” he said. “From what I see it is successful if you understand it is about low level issues.”

So just what successes have there been in the city?

Last year police organised dragon boating for youngsters in Warndon and Tolladine. The activity was held as a direct result of PACT feedback about anti-social behaviour in the area.

In the Arboretum area of the city PACT meetings identified problems such as anti-social behaviour in Gheluvelt Park.

Local police started the campaign Love Your Park which saw youngsters litter-picking, poster competitions and flyers being distributed telling people what they can do to help.

The aim was to encourage people to respect, protect and enjoy the park.

“That was really successful in terms of PACT,” Mr Smith said.

So what can you do to get involved with the programme? Each area in Worcester tackles PACT differently so log onto the West Mercia police website at westmercia.police.uk and follow the links.

You can also enter your postcode to find out details for your local policing officer and what the process is.