Offenders caught shoplifting by the Ipswich Central team of Street Rangers could receive an instant ban from most town centre stores whilst those caught dropping litter, fly-posting, daubing the streets with graffiti, or allowing dog-fouling, will be given an on-the-spot fine.

Ipswich Central is a Business Improvement District company and is tasked with providing additional services to the town centre, with a view to portraying Ipswich as a progressive town and becoming measurably more appealing for businesses, staff, residents and visitors.

The recently Police-accredited Street Rangers team, who will be able to issue exclusion notices or on-the-spot fines via hand-held PDAs, play a vital-role in managing a safer town centre. A team of Street Rangers work six days a week in the town centre offering advice and assistance to the general public. Working in conjunction with the police, they now have the added back up of stronger powers to deter crime and anti-social behaviour, all with the help SHERLOCK.

 Richard Culley, Street Services Co-ordinator for Ipswich Central commented

“Previous systems just seemed to hold data which could never be relied upon as being 100% up-to-date. We felt that in these challenging economic times the need for real-time information on offenders was crucial for managing a safe and secure Ipswich town centre. SHERLOCK is to be rolled out over the next six weeks and the benefits will be immediate.”

SHERLOCK allows the Rangers to instantly log the incident and to check if the offender is already on the database. Co-developer Serious-IT enthused about the software “We believe it to be the only one of its kind. It is great to have created a system which will be of value to the town centre and its visitors and we anticipate other town centres will want to benefit from it too.”