Cambridge Community Safety Partnership: Working together to keep Cambridge safe

The Cambridge Community Safety Partnership meets regularly throughout the year to help keep Cambridge safe.

It brings together the city and county councils, police, fire and probation services, transport police and health, as well as local business, voluntary and higher education organisations.

The partnership looks at what community safety issues people in Cambridge are experiencing, such as antisocial behaviour or specific types of crime, and decides what actions to take to prevent or deal with these issues together.

Each year, community safety priorities for Cambridge are reviewed, with actions for the year ahead set out in the Community Safety Plan.

From 2023 to 2025 the partnership’s priority was reducing violence in the city centre. This work included:

  • having more police in the city centre in the right place at the right time
  • installing additional CCTV in the market square and on our open spaces, and creating refuge points in the market square so that anyone in distress has a direct link to our 24/7 CCTV control room
  • providing taxi marshalls, street pastors and open space guardians to patrol the city centre during peak evening and weekend periods, to provide support for people out at night and help them get home safely
  • providing Business Against Abuse training for over 1,000 people so that they can understand the signs of predatory behaviour and how to intervene safely if they see if happening in their premises.

Priorities for 2025 to 2027

Our strategic assessment 2024/25 (available in the Insights section below) showed us that that total recorded crime fell by 10% to the lowest level in four years.

It also showed us that the partnership needed to set three priorities to tackle, reduce, and prevent crime in the city. The three priorities are:

  • Preventing violence and exploitation
  • A neighbourhood approach
  • Tackling acquisitive crime

Priority 1: Preventing violence and exploitation

While Cambridge is a safe city, there is an increase in violence against the person offences.

Most of these incidents are connected to the night-time economy in our city centre higher rates of both violent crime and drug offences. Both on a national level and in Cambridge, young people are at risk of being criminally exploited into supplying drugs.

We want to keep Cambridge safe, by preventing violence and exploitation before it causes significant harm, as part of the county-wide public health approach to serious violence.

We’ll achieve this priority by:

  • developing a process for businesses and venues to raise concerns about risks to children outside the home, particularly during the night-time economy
  • exploring continuation funding for city centre taxi marshals as well as first aid provision on key dates in the nighttime economy
  • developing a localised community hate crime awareness campaign

Over the life of the strategy, we will:

  • expand the reach of the Cambs Against County Lines campaign created by the partnership in 2020
  • ensure crime prevention principles are key to the civic quarter redevelopment
  • renew our Purple Flag accreditation status

Priority 2: A neighbourhood approach

We know that Cambridge is a city of contrasts of both wealth and inequalities. In this situation, health and crime can intersect, compounding their impacts.

By working on a neighbourhood level alongside residents and community groups, we will better understand their needs and the crime issues affecting them, and can work alongside residents to keep their neighbourhoods safe.

We’ll achieve this priority by:

  • increasing opportunities to align our approach to neighbourhood engagement
  • working with communities to identify opportunities to utilise crime prevention funding in their neighbourhoods
  • delivering a localised response to ASB hotpots, including deployment of CCTV

Over the life of the strategy, we will:

  • develop a neighbourhood response to the different crime types prevalent in different ward areas and how these crime types fluctuate

Priority 3: Tackling acquisitive crime

Cambridge has the highest rate of acquisitive crime across Cambridgeshire.

While cycle crime used to be the main type of acquisitive crime in Cambridge, there has been a reduction in bike theft since 2018, through the partnership’s continued and combined efforts.

Shoplifting is now the most prevalent acquisitive crime, with a large proportion of shoplifting being committed by repeat offenders. Nationally, the increased cost of living has also impacted the quantity of goods stolen at one time.

We’ll achieve this priority by:

  • developing a crime prevention and support pack for retail workers
  • maintaining a dedicated policing team focussed on those who commit the majority of thefts to tackle and reduce re-offending
  • engaging retailers and support them to give best evidence
  • continue our ‘awareness, infrastructure and enforcement’ approach to addressing cycle crime

Over the life of the strategy, we will:

  • continue with and learning from our approach to cycle crime with partners, we hope to address the increase in shoplifting in the city

Business as usual

The partnership regularly works together on issues such as:

  • cycle theft and cycle security
  • making the Cambridge night-time economy safer
  • delivering Cambridge Street Aid
  • raising awareness of domestic abuse and support available to survivors
  • conducting domestic homicide reviews (see below)

The partnership’s current business as usual work focuses on:

  • the city centre, through the City Centre Working Group chaired by the Police
    • working with stakeholders including businesses and universities to discuss issues such as night-time economy and retail crime
  • domestic abuse, led by Cambridge City Council
  • problem-solving, through the Problem-Solving Working Group chaired by Cambridge City Council
    • discussing cases including hot spots to develop action plans
  • street community, led by Cambridge City Council
    • discussing individual cases and developing action plans

Meetings

Most partnership meetings are open to the general public. If you would like to learn more about the partnership, or bring an issue to the meeting for discussion, please get in touch.

We publish the full agenda and associated papers in the week before each meeting, which has details on how to ask questions.

Next public meeting

  • Tuesday 24 February 2026, 10am at Conference Room 2, Parkside Place Community Fire Station, Cambridge CB1 1JF

Previous meetings

Contact us for copies of older meeting agendas and minutes.

Community Safety Plan

The latest Community Safety Plan came into effect in September 2023.

Previous plans are available upon request.

Insights

We ensure we are responding to an accurate picture of the current issues facing Cambridge in respect of crime, disorder, antisocial behaviour, substance misuse and behaviour adversely affecting the environment.

Documents such as the strategic assessment, and other reports, offer valuable insights.

Annual review

We review the partnership’s work each year, to help outline actions for the year ahead.

Domestic Abuse Related Death Reviews

We carry out a review when somebody aged 16 or older dies because of abuse, violence or neglect by a relative, intimate partner or member of the same household.

Community safety work the council is involved in

To find out more about the work we are involved in, please view the following pages:

Community Safety Partnership agencies

The partnership is made up of a range of different agencies. There are statutory ‘responsible authorities’ and a number of equally important, non-statutory members. They are:

  • Cambridge City Council
  • Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Integrated Care Partnership
  • Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
  • Cambridgeshire Constabulary
  • Cambridgeshire County Council
  • Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service
  • Probation Service – Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Probation Delivery Unit
  • Anglia Ruskin University
  • British Transport Police
  • Cambridge Business Against Crime
  • Cambridge Council for Voluntary Service
  • Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
  • University of Cambridge

A representative of the Office of the Cambridgeshire Police and Crime Commissioner also attends the partnership meetings.

Page last reviewed: 11 February 2026

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