Post Offices in Montgomeryshire will soon become a hub for crime prevention as a new initiative is launched this week to bring police staff in contact with the public.
Dyfed Powys Police is launching its “Adopt a Post Office” scheme which will see PCSOs attending local post offices at peak times to talk to people about crime prevention and reassure them about any issues.
It follows a trial run at 12 Post Offices over the past 12 months. It will be launched at Llandrinio Post Office near Welshpool on Thursday and will include Post Offices in and around Newtown and throughout Montgomeryshire.
PCSOs can also arrange for crime prevention advice leaflets and posters to be displayed at the Post Office and to hold regular community surgeries at the location.
The scheme is a national model, and has been proven to improve relationships between Post Office staff and the police, giving people the confidence to report potential criminal behaviour.
Dyfed-Powys Police Partnerships Inspector Stuart Eckley said: “Post Offices are key locations where members of the community, particularly the elderly and those living in rural areas, regularly visit. This makes them an ideal place in which we can interact with the public.
“People may have something on their mind they’d like to discuss with an officer but don’t go out of their way to visit a police station or call 101 as they don’t feel it’s significant enough.
“The aim is to reach residents we might otherwise struggle to engage with. We’ll be passing on important information like warning against distraction burglary, bogus callers and courier fraud.
“After the success of our Adopt a Post Office trial it made sense for us to ‘adopt’ Post Offices across Powys in some of our key communities. We have found the scheme to be very beneficial so far, and hope that we can replicate these benefits across the county.”
The launch event will take place at Llandrinio Post Office, where a positive relationship has been forged with local officers.
Post Office Head of Security Operations Mark Raymond added: “We are always looking to create new partnerships with the police which will benefit not just our two organisations, but the community as a whole.
“The Post Office remains at the heart of communities up and down the country, and we are happy to provide locations in Dyfed-Powys for the police to utilise, in terms of liaising with customers and conveying key security messages.”
The scheme will be officially launched at Llandrinio Post Office at 11am on Thursday, July 13.
