Making criminals pay

Each year Thames Valley Police recover hundreds of thousands of pounds of stolen property from criminals. Sadly it is not always possible to reunite stolen goods with their rightful owners and so the proceeds from the sale of these items helps to fund crime prevention initiatives. The fund is topped up thanks to the support of our judges with more cash from criminals through certain court orders.

Now is your opportunity to put this money to good use in your community. Applications are now open for my Community Fund and £200,000 is available to community groups across Thames Valley to support local projects. The only requirement is that in some way they support our plan to help reduce crime. In the past we have funded projects to improve lighting in public places and prevent anti-social behaviour, all the way up to charities who work to rehabilitate offenders or projects designed to stop young people getting into trouble.

As well as supporting applications to the fund twice a year we also use this funding to help organisations such as Neighbourhood Watch, Street Pastors and our local volunteer Search and Rescue Teams. It’s an opportunity to make sure that money taken from criminals - rather than your tax payers money - is put to a good use. Volunteers in organisations like Lowland Rescue Oxfordshire do amazing work, bringing their time and expertise - although with their fantastic dogs - to support the police in the search for missing people. Through this funding we’re able to support their work in a small way at no cost to the public.

If you have a project in your community I would love to hear from you. There are hundreds of applications each year from parish councils, local charities and volunteer groups. If you have an idea that might help to reduce crime or antisocial behaviour then we may be able to help.

Applications are NOW OPEN until noon on Monday 22nd September so get your application in quickly! The process is simple and there are full details available on my website at thamesvalley-pcc.gov.uk/get-involved/community-fund.