Eclipse Research has completed several crime, drugs and disorder audits for statutory borough-wide community safety and crime reduction partnerships. To identify the levels of crime, drugs and anti-social behaviour, the audits drew data from a broad range of sources and agencies. The challenge was to draw meaningful comparisons and inferences from datasets that have been compiled in different ways. Following which, it has drawn up reduction strategies and action plans for their implementation.

The methods and skills that were developed by Eclipse Research during these audits have been incorporated into the methods used by the crime analysts working for the Metropolitan Police and the borough community safety units, enabling them to conduct regular analysis of crime and disorder. Upon evaluation, Government Office for London assessed one of these as the most comprehensive and accessible in London.

A council asylum seekers service was concerned about the financial impact on the services of the large number of asylum seekers that were being accommodated in its borough by other local authorities in London. Although some authorities were merely accommodating homeless people temporarily in Haringey, others were going so far as to ‘discharge their duty’ towards their clients by housing them in Haringey for considerable periods of time.

Eclipse Research was commissioned to, amongst other things, examines the development and growth of the private rented sector in the borough, to understand how and why it developed to the point that it became a major source for temporary accommodation for local authorities and public agencies. The focus of the analysis was an examination of the interaction between the supply and demand for private rented accommodation and how this led to the large-scale supply of temporary and/or emergency accommodation for homeless or destitute people.

It studied the scale of the supply of temporary accommodation for public agencies. it identified from the responsible councils how many and what proportion of its residents in temporary accommodation were housed in that borough, disaggregated into various categories; also the National Asylum Seekers Service and its agents for those who were its responsibility.

It concluded with a series of policy recommendations and a strategy for identifying precisely how much the temporary accommodation was costing public services in the borough.

Following a sharp rise in theft in a town centre, Eclipse Research was commissioned to assess the level of crime, in particular to survey businesses to determine the degree to which retailers were suffering from shoplifting and other forms of theft from their premises.

In response to the crime survey of businesses and an analysis of police recorded crime, the Metropolitan Police Service established a team tasked to reduce crimes against business in the town centre. This proved successful in reducing offending and was retained as additional to the borough police establishment with joint funding from the Business Improvement District and the police.  This was the first permanent team of police constables dedicated to policing a London town centre; Eclipse Research drew up its terms of reference and, with the Metropolitan Police Authority, its contract with the local authority.

The consultancy has continued to work with the Business Improvement District monitoring and evaluating the impact of the police team, advising on targets and priorities and developing other community safety initiatives to support the project.