Clients Valuing VISAV

Police valuing VISAV and Neighbourhood Alert

The support that we receive from VISAV is excellent and has only improved as they have made changes to the way in which they work. Whenever we have anything we want to discuss we know we can do so using a variety of methods. The calendar has been especially useful when trying to organise meetings with a group. Having direct access means we save a lot of time and email traffic arranging a suitable time for everyone.  

Superintendent Jenny Bristow,
Humberside Police

I have worked for West Mercia Police for 24 years. Throughout that time, I have never found a private company so willing to help than VISAV.
I was tasked with implementing a messaging system by Chief Officers after nearly a year of the force being without a functioning system, and much concern being voiced by the community and partner agencies. Even before payment was received, Mike and the team could not have done any more to help. They were able to meet every requirement, and often despite multiple requests from departments within my organisation. They were quick to make changes and provide information on everything from IT to GDPR. They met a short deadline, and we are really pleased with the end product, which is so much more than a messaging system.
We now have a piece of kit available that we can deploy to tactically increase satisfaction and confidence in policing in West Mercia. It doesn’t end there, with VISAV providing bespoke training sessions and an excellent level of support. They come highly recommended from West Mercia Police.

Chief Inspector Edward Hancox,
West Mercia Police
 

Neighbourhood Watch valuing VISAV and Neighbourhood Alert

I am a Trustee, Deputy Chair and the Secretary of the Sussex Neighbourhood Watch Federation.

Sussex Neighbourhood Watch (NW), which, where needed, advises on and assists all Neighbourhood Watch activities across the very large county of Sussex, has been a user of Neighbourhood Alert, in partnership with Sussex Police, for many years. The database contains details of every NW co-ordinator and scheme in Sussex, as well as thousands of other residents. We estimate that through this network we and the police can message over 100,000 people, and many of those will forward messages onto social media. We also send selected key community messages on behalf of not-for-profit partner organisations such as the Office of Police & Crime Commissioner (OPCC), County Councils, the NHS, Trading Standards and the Community Resilience team, to boost their own distribution networks where this is in the public interest. It is the backup callout system for the Sussex Community Search Team. We have effectively used the survey tool, and output from the surveys has caused some Authorities to re-think their approach to certain matters, most noticeably road safety, fraud and cybercrime.

I am aware that Sussex Police are very interested in the additional functionality which is being designed into the latest Version 4 of Alert, and we have been contributing knowledge and experience towards that development. VISAV have been good listeners, and we look forward to seeing the new software going live in Sussex shortly.

Sussex Neighbourhood Watch is a Registered Charity but with very limited income, as we do not charge any membership fees, and we have no staff. Neighbourhood Alert allows us to know who our key players are, map NW schemes and make summary scheme data available free of charge to the public. We are affiliated to Neighbourhood Watch Network (NWN), the umbrella organisation for England and Wales, who are also major Alert users. NWN can directly contact over 800,000 people via the Alert system. As NWN and Sussex Police are VISAV clients, VISAV allows Sussex the free use of Alert. If this facility did not exist, then we would struggle to maintain large scale operations. In return, we assist Sussex Police by helping to keep the largely common database clean, which enables the police to focus their finite resources on fighting crime. There is no other software readily available to us which can deliver what we need.

As with any piece of software, glitches occur from time to time. VISAV maintains a very effective Support service which is able to quickly deal with those glitches. This gives us confidence that our hard-working volunteers can reliably maintain the high standard of service that the public have come to expect.

Derek Pratt, MBE
Deputy Chair & Secretary
Sussex Neighbourhood Watch Federation