A NEW police service has opened in Manchester's Gay Village to help its community.
Pc Sam Tennant and police community support officer Ann Marie Lewis are based at the Lesbian and Gay Foundation offices on Princess Street.
The pair will deal with issues and incidents affecting the village community, reducing and detecting crime and forging links with local people.
They will also promote the work of the area's third-party reporting centres, which allow the public to report incidents without speaking to the police.
Manchester Arndale Centre, The Rembrandt Hotel, the Funky Crop Shop, Clonezone and Vanilla have so far signed up to the scheme and have trained staff to take crime reports from members of the public.
Awareness
Pc Tennant said: "We can address issues that affect the community most and work with our partner agencies to further improve local areas, helping to reduce crime and to raise awareness about crime prevention.
"Members of the public can feel reassured that we are there as a contact point for them and they can come to us with any issues that they would like to raise."
Andrew Gilliver, from the Lesbian and Gay Foundation, said: "The LGF is delighted that Greater Manchester Police is providing the community with a local neighbourhood policing team that will be dealing with incidents and issues that affect us all.
"The experience of working with GMP closely on our police advice surgeries over the last year has given us great confidence that we can further our good working relationship, to promote better lines of communication between the police and the community in a safe and gay-affirmative space.
"We look forward to the continuing support we receive from Pc Tennant, who has been so dedicated to improving the service our community receives from the police.
"And we warmly welcome PCSO Ann Marie Lewis to Princess House."
A police surgery will continue to be held at the LGF every Thursday night between 6pm and 8pm.
The public can use the surgeries to report a crime or talk about policing.
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I congratulate Manchester police and the two nominated police officers in this inovative approach to polcing with and for the GLBTIQ community. I am presently setting up the first Gay and Lesbian Liaison Officer (GLLO) network in South Australia Police, and I am keen to learn of and hear from other police services who have established successful services with the GLBTIQ community. The establishment of GLLO's has been a particularly frustrating endeavour, but I am proud to be able to make ammends and give the best possible service to the GLBTIQ community, of which I am one.
i think that its an extremely good idea to have police prescence within the gay village as it will help stop any trouble that may occur within the village, and hopefully stop the hassle people receive from the beggers etc.