Community Safety Accredited people will soon be walking the streets of Suffolk with defined powers to assist in reducing crime and tackling anti-social behaviour.

Suffolk County Council is one of the first organisations together with Ipswich Central Limited to sign up to Suffolk Constabulary's Community Safety Accreditation Scheme (CSAS) which will allow employees of these organisations to be granted certain powers by the Chief Constable.

The scheme confirms Suffolk Constabulary's commitment to work in partnership with organisations and individuals involved in community safety and security to help to improve quality of life issues in the community.

Cllr Joanna Spicer, Suffolk County Council's Portfolio Holder for Public Protection, said; "Although Suffolk has one of the lowest public perceptions of anti-social behaviour in the country it remains local people's biggest concern. As part of our commitment to the community Suffolk County Council has invested £70,000 in this scheme and is pleased to be working with Suffolk Constabulary to combat these problems."

Paul Clement, executive director of Ipswich Central said: "Ipswich Central is pleased to be the first organisation in Suffolk to achieve the necessary standards under the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme. We are working on community safety issues in Ipswich town centre through the work of the Street Rangers. We have Rangers in town six days a week and the additional powers they now have will further enhance the Ipswich Central service."

Accredited people will wear their own organisations' uniform and will have a nationally identified logo to signify that the individual is accredited plus an identification card clearly setting out the specific powers the individual is trained and authorised to use. The introduction of accredited people will enhance the efforts of other uniformed authority figures in the community in support of the police.

The scheme underpins the commitment of all those involved to work in partnership with the community to improve the quality of life in Suffolk, explains Suffolk Constabulary Chief Constable Simon Ash: "This scheme will continue to strengthen our links with the local community and further increase public reassurance by creating additional capacity in support of our Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNTs)." Accreditation works hand in hand with safer neighbourhood policing to provide local, effective solutions tailored to the community they serve.

"The accreditation scheme will support the work of the SNTs by helping to generate even more localised and high quality local information, which will then be shared with the police and other partners" continued Mr Ash. "This will help to direct resources even more effectively and in turn tackle problems such as anti-social behaviour which greatly impact on people's lives."

Each accredited person will have to meet specific standards and their own organisations will have their own policies and procedures assessed and quality assured. Everyone accredited will be vetted to the same high standard as police officers and police staff.