#320. Bournemouth's 'Vigilante' Patrol Group - Safeguard Force

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2:03Richie: Critics have called them a vigilante group and police in Bournemouth Council don't endorse them. Not all the press reports all this. And that's the bit that is infuriating because we know what's going on in the streets but the press aren't reporting it. Is there a reason why the press don't report it?

2:19Gary: It was in Bournemouth Town Centre and a gentleman stabbed six people with a screwdriver.

2:25Richie: You know, when you see the stats, I think there's 150 reported knife crimes last year. I think there was 300 plus reported in our town. That's what's reported. Shocking stories what have happened that haven't been in the press. And I don't know, like, where we should have this conversation on air here or not. But some of the stuff that I've heard that's happened in the town. Yeah. Talk about it. Yeah. Let's talk about it. Yeah, OK.

3:01Richie: welcome to the eventful lives podcast i'm your host dodge and i'm the founder of borne the sevens the world's largest sport and music festival on this podcast i speak to proper characters of all lived eventful lives do us a favor and hit that follow button and be sure to check us out on youtube instagram facebook and tiktok at dodge woodall where we've now had over 100 million views gentlemen welcome to the show thank you nice to be here yeah very much looking forward to this is a really interesting one for me i saw a safeguard force pop up about six weeks ago on the internet on facebook and what i've seen over the last six weeks it's blown up massively there was a point when there was millions of views i think there was eight million views you got on on one of the posts which is which has really seemed to have woken up the whole of bcp the bournemouth christ church and pull with what you guys have done and i just find it fascinating what you've created so let's just roll the way back a little bit where did the idea come from and how long have you been live with this idea gary well the idea came from really just um finding how

4:04Gary: bourbon has changed so much um from when i grew up and we used to go downtown we could do anything we want go down it was all safe and you just go out and be be yourself and then i can got my daughters talking to me saying that they won't even go downtown because it's you know they're too scared to so i thought well something needs to be done so if we can do something to help the

4:21Richie: community that's what we'll do yeah absolutely fantastic so you've got here you've got gary here who's a co-founder with richie and luke is another co-founder as well yeah richie what made you want to come on board and really drive this this business model a business model kind of it's a non-profit uh organization but actually it's going to be or should be a business model because

4:42Gary: that's what's needed to make this work yeah yeah um so i was actually on holiday at the time in morocco and uh i had a message from a mutual friend of ours um who asked uh if i'd go on board as kind of an advisor um i do something else in the background um where i sort of work alongside the police um in a similar kind of role so i sort of reached out to you then we had a chat and i started advising in the background um and then i sort of came to see it for myself and i thought you join this is a great idea yeah so uh i'll get involved and then before i knew it i'm writing policies and procedures and things and then you know and then writing the effects of it yeah and then gary says oh you're a co-founder now and i was like fantastic yeah yeah i've just

5:26Richie: seen so much support not just locally but nationally i've seen the support of what you guys are doing it's like um it's really inspiring because what you're doing is protecting girls grandmas mums who don't feel safe in bournemouth town centre what have you noticed richie since you come on board how bournemouth has changed so i've got history working in security um i've

5:52Gary: worked quite a lot of the nighttime economy venues in bournemouth um and i've seen a massive change in the 12 years i was doing that and uh things like bournemouth gardens is a hot spot for crime There's been sexual assaults in there. It's a very well-known place. People are told actively to avoid it. And I've always thought, why are we telling people to avoid such a beautiful place? I saw this as an opportunity to say, well, no, let's take that back. Why can't we be having a place where people can go? It's a great, it's a beautiful place. You know, they've put lighting in there and it still doesn't deter anything.

6:26Gary: So yeah, we're doing this now and let's take back form for the people, for the community. Let's just call the people.

6:33Richie: yeah absolutely 100 so how would you explain safeguard force

6:41Gary: gary how would we explain um so with more of a deterrent than anything else so we go around in in pockets of maybe three to four guys um so you would always have somebody there that's got more qualification than the others so you'll have like an sla badge which is um a security industry agent um and so we've got one to take control um and then just like we've always said many times that we won't even know what we're deterring because it won't happen if we are deterring it. So you think, say to the guys, it doesn't matter that you haven't seen anything tonight. You may have stopped something, you know, as you're walking down, because if somebody's out to do something wrong and they see some people, they're going to stop doing it.

7:16Gary: So, and you know, we have also seen quite a lot of stuff as well.

7:20Richie: How many people are there on your team at the moment, Richie?

7:24Gary: So in terms of volunteers, which have gone through the full vetting process and our boots on the ground, if you like, I think we're 58.

7:31Richie: Is that right? So 58 people have put their hand up and said, I want to help for free.

7:35Gary: Yeah. We've got probably another 50 that are going through the vetting process at the moment. The thing holding most of us back at the moment is the DBS check. It's taken a while to come back through the system. And DBS stands for? Disclosure Bar and Service. So that's your checking your sort of background, really. Making sure that you're a suitable member of the society to help with this kind of activity.

7:55Richie: How has it been for you two over the last six weeks when the local residents are coming up to you and chatting to you on the streets?

8:03Gary: Oh, we get great reception out there. People love what we're doing in general. You get the odd couple of the three that are not so good. But no, just in general, they actually come out and call us heroes, angels. We've been called all sorts of nice things, which have been good, really.

8:15Richie: Well, you can only go on the comments that I read on Facebook. I've never seen anything blow up as quick as this.

8:21Gary: No, it has really blown up.

8:23Richie: It's literally incredible. Anyone listening out there, please go and check out their Facebook account. You'll see that the amount of support that you've got is phenomenal.

8:30Gary: I'll give you a few figures on that. We have 32 ,000 followers now. In just six weeks. In just six weeks. Within 28 days, we had 9 million views on the Facebook page alone, just within the 28-day period. And we had one post that we put out one night when we, I think it was the night when we had ITV come out with us, had 42 ,000 likes on one post alone. My God. So that's gone viral. That's national. Absolutely, and international as well. We've got people from different countries that are interested in and asking us if we can come over there.

9:00Richie: And I've also heard many towns and cities who want to replicate this. Do you think that's a goer, Richie?

9:10Gary: I mean, you've got to be realistic with something like this. We're in our infancy. So the last thing we want to do is start pushing the model out that we haven't really fully developed ourselves. It would be great to do down the line if we start potentially franchising out or something, but it's got to be done properly. It's lots of measures to put in place. You've got to make sure that they're following the same model because evidently their actions will reflect on us as an umbrella. But to be fair, we are putting the infrastructure in for that to happen, aren't we? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But as you say, we're six weeks in.

9:43Gary: We're talking six months' time. We might be able to say, yeah. That's right. We've had a reach out from Edinburgh. It's probably the furthest I've seen so far. so you know it's this and that's in six weeks we have all over the country leeds manchester

9:55Richie: wherever london it's fabulous every week it's fabulous it really is what makes you excited about this opportunity or what you're doing at the moment giving back put simply our families

10:09Gary: can walk through bournemouth or their hometowns um and feel safe about it and not feel i can't go through there and i i have i genuinely i'm not even blowing this up i have countless people come up to me daily that recognize me through the social media stuff in town and they'll stop me and say thank you we wouldn't be coming out at the moment if it wasn't for you yeah um as soon as darkness hits i've had a woman and her daughter come past us in bournemouth gardens one night and she said um i haven't brought my daughter out for i think she said two and a half years but now you guys are out i'm quite happy to be out here yeah and obviously seeing the guys out is just that

10:43Richie: reassurance as well do you know i think it's sad yeah i think this is really listen it's really positive but i also look and think how sad the society we're at the moment we've got to get 58 volunteers on the streets yeah working on a freebie where are the police like where the where are the police like we're all taxpayers are the police not on the streets like actually no they're

11:07Gary: not if you want you on the street so when we go out doing our patrols at least as much as they say they're in the paper saying that they've got all these extra patrols out we don't see them what i want to say is on that the police are fantastic the police that are out there are fantastic and i could i couldn't give you a bad word about it there just isn't enough of them and i don't know what the reason for that is well the funding's not higher isn't it yeah i don't know where the problem lies and it's not really for us to comment you know i'd rather support and work with the police absolutely um i don't know why there's no more out that's not for me to comment on yeah but

11:38Richie: the ones that are out are fantastic yeah they are the ones i've spoken to i've actually got friends were old Bill in Bournemouth and they're fully supportive of what you guys are doing yeah fully supportive they're like why would why would we not yeah you know and I've seen this word vigilante being thrown out there I don't think we should jump on this word at all because this is not vigilante vigilante is when you take the law into your own hands you're not doing that absolutely you're just there to be eyes and ears and to protect people make people feel comfortable that you're walking around boots on the streets looking after people being polite being and making sure Just for anyone out there, the Winter Gardens, Bournemouth Winter Gardens are stunning.

12:13Richie: And what you're saying now, this is a hotspot of sexual attacks and sexual stuff that's going on, knife crime, etc, etc. Not all the press reports all this. No. And that's the bit that is infuriating because we know what's going on in the streets, but the press aren't reporting it. Is there a reason why the press don't report it?

12:31Gary: I'd love to know. Yeah, I'd love to know. I would love to know. There was an incident going back a few weeks ago. it was in Bournemouth Town Centre and a gentleman who was local to the area stabbed six people with a screwdriver it was never mentioned until I referenced it in an interview and then it went into the paper the next day but this was weeks after it happened so why are they not reporting it I don't know it's not for us to comment again I don't know if I was to speculate I'd say maybe they want the town to look safer than it is to doing because we are a tourist location yeah maybe it's to keep the tourism numbers up which

13:07Richie: is you know i get it we've got to be realistic we've got to be real yeah we like you can't be hiding these things as stats going oh don't worry about it that person who stabbed someone six times with a screwdriver yeah that's got to come out so people actually understand and know what's going on i heard that about an hour afterwards on whatsapp yeah because we're on whatsapp group lads have you seen what's going on here someone's stabbed down west over i'm like you are joking me yep did they find that guy yes yes what happened to him um i don't know i don't know

13:35Gary: i know he was arrested at the time what's happened since then on bail and release and off he goes quite possibly um i believe the mental health was mentioned at the time um but i don't know what the process is probably bailed but bailed where to is he is he got an address to be bailed to i don't know i don't know but these things need to be highlighted there's no point in trying to make out these things aren't happening because then you're ignoring the problem rather than dealing with it we'd rather be proactive than reactive no once this once the town gets safe again people are going to come back to town it's just it's just the it's normal isn't it that's what's going to happen and people the hotels will be full up again the seaside will be good again

14:11Richie: but everyone's got the fear of going to town the last time i went into town and i couldn't handle myself it was menacing yeah we feel the same it was menacing and and it doesn't matter if you can to lose they've got nothing to lose if they want to have be a nuisance towards you and if there's two or three of them or four of them we've got nothing to do i took myself in there and i took myself out straight away he says you know what i don't need to be i need to be putting myself this is bournemouth i moved to bournemouth 20 years ago bournemouth like all my pals in london can we go to bournemouth for it's god's waiting room blue rinse i was like no there's loads of nice clubs and bars and people and there was 20 000 15 000 people on the streets on the weekend and people would party and there might be a punch-up here and there, but there wouldn't be the R-word.

14:59Richie: I hate that word. Like, sexual assault with the R-word.

15:02Gary: There wouldn't be that.

15:03Richie: There'd be a few punch-ups afterwards with people in the streets at three o 'clock in the morning and then they'd kind of be sort of done and dusted with.

15:10Gary: Yeah.

15:11Richie: Hmm. Yeah. But now there's no bars, there's no clubs, but there's still a high crime rate still going on and that's without 15 ,000 people on the streets.

15:22Gary: Yes.

15:23Richie: My God. So imagine the stats. If there still were 15 ,000 people on the streets, plus what's going on. Yeah.

15:28Gary: Yeah. So I wonder if that makes the stats not look as bad right now. Yeah.

15:34Richie: Do you know what I mean?

15:36Gary: The biggest issues I find are it's not the venues that have the problems. It's people moving between the venues. Yes. You might leave a venue because you're going home and then something will happen while you're walking to the bus stop or to the taxi rank or through the gardens. And that's where, I'm not saying things don't happen in venues, but the biggest issue is between them. And that's kind of where we can look to come in and be like, well, okay, now you're safe on the streets. You can come in and go to these nightclubs. The nighttime economy is crashing. It's dead. We can raise that back up again.

16:06Gary: It'd be great for a tourist location.

16:08Richie: Have you ever spoken to the head of, I don't know who these people are, but have you ever spoken to the head of Bournemouth Police and had a conversation and sat down with them around a table?

16:16Gary: I don't know who the title of Bournemouth Police is. I don't know who that would be, but we have spoken to people in the police. We've had a few meetings with them, haven't we?

16:25Richie: Yeah. Are they frosty towards you?

16:27Gary: Not frosty. Not frosty, I wouldn't say is the word. I think it's, again, a bit further up the line. It would get dictated how they got to perceive us. So they're not signing us off just yet. I think they might have seen how we behave. I have to believe that's due diligence. I have to believe. I want to believe. I sort of agree with it in a way, because you can't just have everybody out there doing it. You've got to show your worth and what you are out there doing. I'd be more concerned if we started doing this and they just said yeah yeah yeah crack on lads yeah you know that's that's not due diligence but they're making sure that we've got things in place so the right procedures in place the right okay so I respect that yeah and I want to meet that you know if they tell us oh this policy leads for refining no problem if I was a copper and I was

17:05Richie: or head of police and I knew you guys were the real deal which you are and you're doing this for free to help the town I would want to support you yeah I'd want to fully get behind you how do you make how do you raise money lads how do you raise money because how long is this going to go on for when you've got 58 people who are on board you've got 50 people who are coming on board you're gonna have a pool of 100 people this is after six weeks imagine what's gonna be after six months it's gonna be a pool of 200 300 400 people who how can you fund this well we get donations from

17:33Gary: the general public um they come in and dribbling drivers and some people have a substantial amount which is like the 500 pounds and then we get you know people that can't afford so much put a fiver but every penny counts towards it really we got our ppe's just uh stab vests um so you're going

17:48Richie: down in stab vests yeah a lot of us do yeah yeah yeah yeah bournemouth yeah stab vests rapes what what like it shouldn't be needed it shouldn't be needed just shouldn't even we shouldn't be having we shouldn't even be having this conversation exactly yeah yeah but i'm glad we're having this conversation because when i saw it pipe up on facebook and i saw the amount of support you've got from everyone and everyone i know locally is fully fully behind you yep i've heard maybe 0.1 of someone pipe up saying oh i don't think this is good for the town so i'm like i'd also like to speak to anyone out there who doesn't think it's good for the town because i would love to get you on the podcast and say why do you think it's not good for the town because 99.999 think it is have you had anyone that you've come across who has been anti what you're doing

18:37Gary: there's a bit a small amount i would say it's probably 90 to 10 percent does that agree with that yeah so yeah 90 95 i think i think i think i think it's less than that lads you think the

18:48Richie: amount of views you get the amount of likes you get the amount of comments you get actually if you broke it down i don't think it's 10 of people who does this i'm thinking 0.001 but it's probably the hardest to bring us down yeah but i'm saying but you you've got to listen to those people just Just to understand them and speak to them and actually understand why they would be against it. Have you had a conversation with anyone online or not online to understand why someone would be not pro doing what you're doing?

19:14Gary: So I'm very big on transparency. And if someone has a feedback or some criticism, generally I've done it. I'll invite them for a coffee. I'll buy you a coffee. Let's sit down and talk about it. No one's taken me up on the offer yet of the negative side. now if they can tell me I think you should do it this way and we think yeah do you know what actually that's a great idea we'll do it we're not here to see this is how we're doing end of story. We've always answered their questions Yeah we're open, we're very open we're not, I know there's this kind of small percentage of people that have this idea of what we might be like wherever we've got to do to curb that we'll do that

19:52Richie: I've seen you on Facebook I've seen you speak to Cameron, you come across extremely well, you come across extremely organized you've got everything in place you're going you're jumping through the hoops yeah to get everything in place to say right we've got this you want us first aid we'll do that you want us dbs we'll do that if you want us to do it we'll do that if you want us at these certain hours we'll do that so you're ticking all the boxes that surely no one can complain against it so the end

20:16Gary: of the day what i've said from day one is we could all get together as just normal members of the public which we are whack on a yellow high vis with no branding on it and go out and do the exact same thing nobody would bat an eyelid yeah stick a logo and a name on it and now or who's who do you report to who's your vet and process well what's going on here you know so okay we're doing these things but the reality is we don't have to we could just go now we're going to just tuck a yellow eye vis on take some water around and do the same thing that's right but we've made ourselves accountable you know every volunteer has their own unique number you know so if you have a complaint against somebody everyone's identifiable and we have a complaints procedure we've got a safeguard in lead we've got all these things in place and you know when more things come on we need you and want you to do this we're doing it we're doing these things we want to be transparent and open

21:01Richie: with the public because that's who we're here serving but the public are seeing your transparency the public are seeing your honesty online the public are seeing you guys walking the streets when it's tonking down with rain we're all in at home nice and warm all of a sudden something pops up on facebook there's 20 of you walking on the streets in the in the tonking down rain thinking and you're doing this for free to protect our town yeah yeah and this is when you've got to

21:26Gary: think what the people that are against it this small percentage they've got a sort of a very very small very small percentage why are safeguard force doing this we're not getting paid you know we're going out like you say in the rain till 12 1 2 o 'clock in the morning why are they doing that what are they gaining from doing that we're not benefiting anything other than knowing that we're the community safer yeah and it has to be mentioned that when we first started there were quite a few incidents and that level of incidents is is dropped dramatically yeah you know we're seeing maybe one or two a week now that we we either deter interact with you know whatever but before we were seeing five six a night yeah and that's through consistency though isn't it we haven't you know we've done that all the times and like rishi said it has dispersed away from that we sometimes we go out

22:11Richie: now oh that was really quiet tonight yeah okay massive massive respect yeah because if it hadn't to be and the numbers would keep increasing and increasing but people mums grannies children if I'm like out with friends of ours and they've got teenage daughters they're all saying we're not going to Bournemouth yeah mums and grannies go I'm not going to Bournemouth yeah like that's sad because what the knock-on effect is the restaurants aren't earning exactly the clothes are clothes shops are closing down every shop's closing

22:37Gary: down yep it's turned into a ghost town and

22:41Richie: it's a beautiful little town of Bournemouth yeah yeah yeah I yeah and i'm not just saying this is bournemouth by the way you know i've got many contacts all around the country it's happening all around the country yeah but we care for our town yeah have you how do you raise money how can someone listen to this say you know i'm gonna go and put in a grand i'm gonna put in 500 quid i'm gonna put in 200 quid i'm gonna put in a fiver where do they

23:04Gary: go to put their money in so initially we had a go fund me page um and that did really well we raised seven thousand pounds in a matter of two three weeks or something ridiculous that got suspended because there was allegations of vigilantism. What was the other thing they said? Human trafficking? Yeah. Some links to human trafficking, some ridiculous stuff. So they all got returned back to the people. You're joking. Yeah, so we had to start again. So you set up a GoFundMe page for the positivity of our town.

23:33Richie: People are throwing money in. Yep. You built up a pot, which will help you get your clothes and stab vests and da-da-da-da, and that got closed down. Who closed that down?

23:43Gary: GoFundMe.

23:44Richie: but go fund me can't just closed of course they can it's their business but someone must have triggered them to go and close you know we don't know who that would be no idea but who has the power to do that because if a normal bod phones up and said oh but i think these are vigilantes i don't know we should be raising money for them go fund me wouldn't just go okay

24:04Gary: impossible so that leads us to believe that maybe somebody in a position perhaps but we can only assume that yeah why no idea why would that person whoever's listening out there if it's you or you're so why why you're like maybe because we're doing it for free um but

24:22Richie: that's my point my point is you're doing it for free this is not a business but there should be

24:26Gary: people out there that are not doing it for free that should be doing doing the doing their job yeah which is the reason we started in the first place yeah but we don't know what the reason for that is and we're not going to speculate no you know it's the police's fault everybody could assume what they want from that yeah yeah you know there's just not enough people is maybe crime is so bad that they can't physically put out enough people you know it's not has there been any other negativity towards you guys in terms of in terms of like the police want you to go through jump

24:58Richie: through certain hoops and i respect the police for that yeah absolutely and i like how you guys are working with them to say okay we'll do that we'll do that is there any other community or any other media channel or anyone who's gone against you yeah so we've had um a few media outlets reach

25:16Gary: out to us uh wanting to do um they want to come out and patrol with us they want to interview us or whatever um we had itv come out actually one night didn't we yeah did an interview with them and uh after the interview i think it was the next day they said oh we've decided we're not going to publish this now so i inquired why as a reason for that and they said oh it's an editorial decision we we do believe because we didn't give them anything negative they could flip on it okay that's why they decided not to go ahead they asked me a question and it was uh similar to what we just discussed why do you think the police and the local authority are so against you and i said i don't think they are i think they're showing due diligence exactly as i said to you yeah and i think they were hoping i was going to say oh because they're idiots yeah yeah they're like this they're the problem the following week bbc were going to come to one of our training sessions um and then they called off exactly the same night we were we set up the meeting to do the training which we carried on doing the training session anyway yeah some of we were doing but they wanted to film it

26:11Richie: but they stopped doing that why do you think the bbc did the bbc actually turn up or not no they said they were going to but they didn't turn up did they leave you a message say so on or turn or they just didn't turn up it was a message wasn't it yeah i think we got a message to say sorry we're not we're not we're not coming now yeah interesting yeah yeah we got our own

26:26Gary: videographer in there as well and everything like so it'll cost us money to set it all up as well why don't they want to put across such a positive story i hear what's their agenda i hear and the echo of beating us up constantly to be the daily echo what the newspaper does anyone take the echo seriously nobody takes the echo seriously but they have beaten us up from day one so why the what would the echo say about you all sorts everything what's really funny is they put a post out one day and it was like um our safeguard a fantastic kind of thing and four hours later massive concerns over safeguard force and you think well and then the following day they want

26:59Richie: to come out and patrol with us yeah that's bonkers yeah you can't think they want they're hoping to put a negative spin on it but surely someone like the newspaper like you would want a positive spin so everyone's like fair play the echo have got behind them this is really positive for our town we're trying to tidy up our town to get it back to where it was yeah four or five years ago surely they would want to put a nice spin on it surely the the that's what we thought the top editor or whoever is reporting go come on let's get behind these people you know i would understand a little bit i think if it was a business where people are oh they're just trying to jump on this because it's a business yeah they're a limited company oh they want to earn 200 grand 500 grand a million they want to but but it's not this is volunteers this is 58 people who are giving their time for

27:45Gary: free yeah and the company that we set up is a non-profit making company as well yeah so it's not as we're hiding them we would we would go for charity status but it takes up about two years again charity status yeah that's the end goal we want we want to register as a charity what have you seen what have you seen change in bournemouth you know there was a documentary the other day

28:04Richie: someone come out i can't remember his name there was a documentary that came out on youtube about bournemouth can you remember his name bill he was talking about bournemouth the way the decline in Bournemouth yeah and it went viral you must have seen it I haven't seen it no yeah you would have I can't remember who the reporter was and it was just saying how the how seaside towns around the UK have deteriorated so quickly if that was filmed down by the pier yes it was yeah I did see that

28:35Gary: yeah I actually shared that on my own social media yeah yeah I was in shock all my family were in

28:39Richie: shock yeah everyone I knew being passed around on whatsapp were in shock yeah is it a good thing that the publicity went national and went worldwide about a little town like ours in Bournemouth has seven miles of beautiful beaches people running up and down the coast people fit and healthy people enjoying the lifestyle and what we've got down here in Dawson how all proud how proud we are I just wonder if that gave such a negative view or was it a cards on the table these are the stats and figures whether that's a good thing for our town well it is it's a good

29:14Gary: thing in a way that we have to do something to get it cleaned up yeah um because in reality that is what it's like yeah so if you can you can't sugarcoat it exactly that if you sugarcoat it you're telling people you're not being transparent and telling them the lies yeah hiding the problem doesn't make the problem go away absolutely absolutely and do we do we you know in in our own due diligence as a town should we be painting this perfect picture and then somebody comes down is the victim in fact one of the incidents we did deal with on the beachfront on the second day you were with me yeah we had a lad that was assaulted by four other lads and uh he was he'd been visiting from i think he said coventry um and he said oh bournemouth's a beautiful place me i'm down here with my partner and he got jumped by these four lads and we happened to be close by um and we got there and just talked these four lads down and they left um and the male sustained an injury to his face we reported to the police did all the proper procedure and everything but that lad came down on the premise that he thought this place is lovely so as a town should we be falsely advertising that it's perfect right now we want people to come back 100 so why aren't we working together to make it that that possibility why are we not doing that why are we trying to paint a picture that isn't realistic yeah and the same night that same night um we had another incident up in the square yeah where another group of lads sat about two guys um i think it was only one guy one guy one guy okay i will say with a knuckle duster yeah and a blade and only because we ran in that they dispersed and didn't probably saved him from being stabbed yeah potentially

30:47Richie: the knife crime i just can't believe how knife crime has grown so quickly it's crazy out of nowhere literally out of nowhere the last couple of years the knife crime yeah you know when you see the stats i think it was 150 reported knife crimes last year i think there was 300 plus rapes reported in our town that's what's reported yeah how many 300 plus that's nearly one a day yeah yeah like and how many don't get reported this is it and i think the number if you looked it like that would be a lot a lot like how many i would like to know what the stats are for if just mentioning that name makes my blood boil that someone could actually do that someone's daughter or does whatever on the whatever but i wonder how many poor girls have gone through this and not wanted to tell their parents or not wanted to report it, not wanted to tell their friends, knowing that they're going to get tarnished with that as well, that haven't been reported.

31:43Richie: I wonder how many knife crimes have happened that have been left out of the statistics. I think it was shock as all, to be honest.

31:53Gary: So another thing we wanted to do as well, well, we don't want to do, we are with emotions in now. So up by the colleges and universities, we're going to do a welfare tent and like a safe haven. so if anyone's in feels vulnerable they've got a safe place to go where we can get them a vetted taxi and get them home safe and things like that bloody brilliant Bournemouth used to have a safe

32:11Richie: bus if you remember yeah i do and the big one outside walkabout yeah yeah that's right so one

32:16Gary: of the projects we we're sort of looking at and you know we're in the process of is putting up a welfare tent in there and in the gardens yeah um and that tent will have you know phone charges for people whose phone dies which is a massively common occurrence is that right is it yeah yeah Yeah. So, you know, they'll be able to contact family to get picked up, etc. Maybe a welfare tent. We'll have medics in these tents. They do come at a cost, obviously. So we're trying to, we'd have been okay if the GoFundMe page wasn't shut down. We are looking for sponsors for that. So if anyone listening to this thinks, oh, I'd like to get involved with that, reach out to us on the page.

32:50Richie: So anyone who wants to get behind you, get you on Facebook, 32 ,000 followers on there in just six weeks. That's phenomenal, by the way.

32:58Gary: Yeah.

32:58Richie: And you've got 9 million views in that short period of time on one of the posts. And I've seen the likes and I've seen the comments. I'm literally blown away. So if anyone is out there who wants to donate some money, get them to send a message privately to you guys.

33:10Gary: Yeah, or just go straight to our webpage. There's a donation. The webpage is? Safeguardforce.co.uk.

33:17Richie: Okay. Yeah. but that but safeguard force.co.uk is great for them to go to but if they actually want to speak to someone straight away send a message on facebook and someone will get back to you straight away so it feels like there's a human behind yeah straight away okay so anyone out there watching and listening if you are from bcp please get your hands in your pockets and just help these this unbelievable team out what they're doing these tents will be viewed by thousands yeah

33:39Gary: and their logo whoever you know the sponsor's logo will be on the tent so you know it'll be seen by thousands and they'll be credited credited on the social media yeah i've heard some i've heard some shocking stories what have happened that haven't been in the press and i don't know like

33:54Richie: where we should have this conversation on air here or not but some of the stuff that i've heard

34:02Gary: that's happened in the town yeah talk about it yeah let's talk about it yeah okay

34:09Richie: a girl lost her friends and she was taken somewhere by a group of men and then her father found the daughter in a van is that correct?

34:22Gary: that is correct yeah

34:24Richie: I've heard that as a rumour what can you explain on that?

34:27Gary: that's not a rumour I know the fella as well I know who he is what the dad? yeah so it's true I obviously won't mention any names but I know it's true I've spoken to him about it as well

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36:19Gary: Which was actually, in the beginning, that was a big part of the reason that we actually started doing this. That was one of the ones that kicked it, triggered it off.

36:27Richie: Yeah. Yeah.

36:31Gary: it was probably eight weeks ago now that was when that's nothing was longer than that wasn't it might be slightly longer yeah yeah yeah when you spoke to the dad when he told you that what was that conversation well he did a lot of tiktok stuff so he's sort of putting it out there as it was so i reached out to him because i knew him so the dad so so let's just explain

36:52Richie: this if you know the story just explain the story to me what happened please um well i don't really

36:57Gary: want to actually if you don't mind okay um because it's more personal because i know him he's your mate yeah he's a mate i don't really want to do that he's already put a lot of stuff on tiktok okay about it to try and expose people yeah which is pretty much where i would like to

37:10Richie: leave it on that one yeah okay so the story is the room around town the truth is that's what happened yeah and he found his daughter in a van and saved his daughter saved his daughter yeah

37:23Gary: my god so this is what goes on in bournemouth and the fact you've had to ask about it suggests that obviously it's not very well known yeah unless you're unless you know you don't know yeah so what you know again why are we hiding these things yeah the more out there the better yeah needs to be highlighted yeah in my opinion otherwise

37:44Richie: it will just be seen as a rumour and it'll just be forgotten about yeah we've had one as well

37:49Gary: I'm drawn and I was away on holiday that week but we've witnessed a rape as well haven't we with the guys we're the first ones to be on the scene. So it does happen. Here's a thing.

38:07Richie: Here's a thing. It fucking makes my blood boil at.

38:10Gary: Yeah. And this historical incident was a friend of the female. Wow.

38:18Richie: What's the answer gents?

38:20Gary: what's the answer keep doing what we're doing yeah keep getting out there being being consistent be um get bigger get more volunteers which you know that's another thing we'd like to mention on here we're looking for volunteers all the time yeah we need more people to join yeah um get out on the streets it's a good way of socializing you get plenty of steps in it's good for exercising you're meeting new people all the time yeah it's good for your mental health it's good all around you know we've we've had such support from local businesses yeah you know they've offered our volunteers half price on food the use of facility all the time gym today we got a gym membership

38:53Richie: so 25 % of gym memberships anyone who's a volunteer yeah so more importantly this go fund me page got taken down have you got a go fund me page today no no we're actually uh still um going through the procedure of trying to get it reopened so where's that seven odd grand gone to has it gone back to the people who put yeah it's been refunded so what what way can you raise money

39:15Gary: without being blocked so we've got ours is for a direct donation now yes it gets paid via paypal on our site so it's it's transparent again just shows you the full amount that's been paid into

39:25Richie: it and everything like that so and can people leave a comment to say i've donated 100 pounds and leave a comment who they are and whatever you can other people see that uh i don't know

39:35Gary: actually do you know i'm not sure can people see no no one can see that i don't think on there so So that's a reason I think that we do need GoFundMe or JustGiving. So people can see it to generate more people wanting to give.

39:47Richie: We tried to open the JustGiving page after that as well,

39:50Gary: but they never came back to us. They said it was in review and never heard nothing ever again. But PayPal's not a problem? PayPal's not a problem. They can put it through there. Although we had some payments held for a bit. Well, we did, yeah. So some of the bigger payments, 500, actually, no, it wasn't just a bigger payments. It was just a random amount of things. Yeah, they just held them, but they held them up to 21 days and then they release. Yeah. Yeah. But that could be because we're a new company. Yeah, it could be.

40:17Richie: Yeah. What would you say to someone who is in that 0.0001 % of people who are against this? Come on out. Come on out.

40:25Gary: Have a walk around with us. Come and see it for yourself. Because that's the bit they're saying they don't believe. Well, come on out and come and have a little look.

40:31Richie: So that's the bit. The bit is saying it's not as bad as everyone's saying. Exactly.

40:34Gary: That's because it's sad at home. Don't see it. Yeah. I didn't see it before either. before i sort of heard about it and i wanted to go do something about it and it's only till i got

40:42Richie: out i thought jeez that is bad i wouldn't be doing that on my own yeah well you think about it if you're not if you're 30 40 50 60 70 the chance of you going to bournemouth were quite you might have gone there once a week and had a look when the rumors go around that age group is going do you know what i've heard all these rooms i'm not going to go in so you don't actually know what it's like until you step foot in yourself and i can only speak from my experience when i went in I was like, is it menacing? You know, you actually feel the vibe. It's like, oof. It's different to how we all remembered.

41:10Richie: And I'm not a person who's going, oh, the good old days back in Bournemouth. But I am, I guess, a part of me. The good old days back in Bournemouth when you could walk the streets and people were half cut and people were having a laugh and people were bouncing from five or six nightclubs and it was just a nice vibe around. You're probably only talking about five to ten years. Yeah, no, you're talking five years ago. you're talking you're talking you're talking pre-pandemic you're talking 2016 17 18 19 when

41:35Gary: everything was everything was flying yeah it was yeah but we get people now coming up to us like ladies coming out and saying i've only come out because i know you guys are around yeah it's

41:44Richie: fantastic and we get that often don't we yeah have you had anyone stalking you yeah you have

41:52Gary: okay good example we've got a very colorful character who seems to be in love with me he's he created a TikTok account initially and started slandering and making up these accusations about us and all sorts saying we're far right and we're creating a civil war and all sorts of mental claims. So I tried to engage with him just like I said earlier I said let's just come have a coffee with me you know I'll buy you a coffee let's have a chat you know. I believe he's Muslim so I thought you know let's have a chat because we work closely with the Muslim community we've got supporters in our team you know we've got volunteers are muslim and sikhs yeah we've reached out to actually have a chat with them as a community directly and you know we want to support them as well we want to save a woman for everyone it's not just not just your white bold looking you know everybody um so this this this lad he's uh he thinks he's fighting the good fight for for muslim i think but he um starts putting out these tiktoks he was trying to intimidate some of the female members of the team he did intimidate one of them actually stopped coming out for a little bit and yeah and uh he put these videos out and he's he uses ai they're very poorly made videos to this but he tries um he's depicted some of them of stabbing me he's been beating me and i've never threatened this guy you know um so yeah tries to be very harassing violent and i'm gonna do this and that um i still offer him a coffee still won't have that coffee um so yeah he's he's a strange character i think he's got some mental health i think it's a mental healthy yeah he actually rides around on his push bike coming down the road when he sees us and puts royal britannia coming out the speakers on his place ira music doesn't place ira music yeah so i don't know what his agenda or intentions are but um i mean you see this a bit of a joke to me but but to to people that aren't used to that sort of way of life if you like you know very quiet but it's a live threat as well it's threatening yeah it's threatening to the to the female volunteers they're coming out thinking oh this is great i know i want to support my community and he's detracting from that he's trying to put people off i think everyone listens

43:55Richie: to this or watching this will want to see bournemouth thriving again and it's going to we're going to make sure of that yeah i just see i can see the passion in what you guys are doing i'm seeing how professional you are yeah that's the bit like what i said about guys coming on here i just want to say how professional you are i'll just say like do you do all the checks are you are you jumping through all the hoops before people come on board with you to patrol the streets what do you do if someone's like a volunteer to what checks do you do to make sure

44:23Gary: they are good for us so they start off with uh the application which asks quite a few questions about you know their background and stuff um they then do a dbs check now we do an enhanced dbs the si a actually only do standard dbs checks so we're actually dbs checking a higher standard than

44:42Richie: the si a so the si is the security badge yes yeah okay so they do they use a standard dbs we're

44:47Gary: doing enhanced for everyone um that's why they're taking so long to come back uh once they've done that we screen their social media so we've actually stopped people joining us because they've showed far right views you know we've had people um supporting uh deportation of immigrants well we've been called far left as well as we've been called far right we've had edl trying to get in the middle trying to come on board because obviously we're not gonna have anyone like that on board so we've actually yeah some people before we got as strict as we were because i say you know We're working with the local authority.

45:15Gary: And initially, we didn't do the social media checks. So a couple did get through. Yeah. And they've been since removed from the team. Yeah. So, you know. So you're acting swiftly. Yeah.

45:24Richie: You know, this is like a new, it's not a business, but you're treating it as a business. Yes. Let's do everything by the book. Let's tick all the boxes. Let's work with the police. Let's work with the council. Let's work with Daily Echo. We're trying to work with everyone.

45:38Gary: But we didn't actually, when we first set out, we didn't set out to be actually endorsed by anybody. We set out to do this on our own metal. We wanted to know what we want. Our vision's never changed. It's always been the same. We're only doing it now just to try and keep them happy. And we're only going to go as far as they're going to let us go. And when they're going to make it too tough for us, we're just going to carry on as normal. As we say, you know, strip the fat off of what we're doing. Essentially, we're just people going out of a high-vis on and making sure people are all right. Yeah.

46:05Gary: Anyone can do that. Why would you not want that? Yeah. we've got no more powers than the general public we can't we can't arrest or anything like that we don't detain somebody if we have to if it's if it's an indictment or something like that what's

46:15Richie: the what's the what's the um communication if you see an incident like you said you've seen a couple of incidents someone's having to tear up with the duster or did what's your communication is it straight have you got communications please or have you got a phone up 999 so we would we

46:28Gary: would have to call 999 just like it just like a normal bod yeah yeah we'd like to get to a point where we're working with the town watch yeah um and we'd have a radio then it's directly to the control room yeah we appreciate us a way off if at all um but at the moment it's call 999 relay the information use de-escalation techniques conflict management um and try you know bring the situation every time we've done that they've been really good with us they're getting someone there straight away and they're like are they like thanks led girls thank you so much it's great absolutely and we've got our own instant report um which i created and essentially if there's a report the person will will log what's happened it includes any details that are relevant you know if the victims or assailants are prepared to give their details or we get them that'll go in uh you know the person that's reported it um what's happened what action we've taken you know is there a safeguard measure that we need to put in place um you know so all these things it's not just a oh yeah 999 there you go yeah yeah and then the next day myself or one of the team that really have been side will the report do a report to the police if it's a police report or instance so brilliant yeah we use reference numbers for every incident they link up to the police's

47:33Richie: reference numbers yeah this is this it's absolutely amazing what you guys are doing we have to learn on our feet yeah no absolutely but it's fabulous what you guys are doing and girls and we're lucky

47:45Gary: to have a really good admin team behind us as well yeah we've been good but i mean richie's initiated that um but you've gotten to a level whereas i wish i had that in my own business to be honest yeah sure we've got a little structure we've got you know it started off as this big old group chat of like 100 people in there and then it became let's cut that down gdpr and stuff's got to come into this we don't know who these people are you know then we had a um admin team we've got icio and all we've got dsl we've registered with the icio we've got insurance that covers everything everything we've got a we've got a press officer as well now we are um he's an ex-superintendent scotland yard his name's mike is he on board he's on board yeah mike nevels who's who is he ex-chief chief superintendent of scotland yard yeah yeah locally local local well he's got two daughters that are in um living born with new milton or Yeah, living your window.

48:31Gary: Yeah, he's 100 % behind us, loves what we're doing. And he's brilliant. That's a lot of weight.

48:36Richie: He's got a hell of a reputation. He's got a massive reputation. He's thrown a lot of weight and supporting you.

48:40Gary: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

48:41Richie: Fabulous. Yeah. I just want to roll back a minute ago. You mentioned the word Town Watch. Yeah. What is Town Watch and why are you not working closely with them?

48:48Gary: So Town Watch is essentially businesses in the... There's a daytime and a nighttime economy. During the day, you've got all businesses are on a radio channel and they can call an instant directly to the control room, which is relayed to the police instantly. So save for the 99.

49:03Richie: Are these the town rangers who wear the red things? No, no, no. No, okay.

49:07Gary: It's called the 501 camera. But you know the camera? 501 is downtime economy. So you've got the daytime economy. They're on a system and the nighttime economy are on a system. And you link directly and they can watch you on the camera. So if I was on Westover Road and there's an instant, I'd say, you know, guys, we're in Westover Road. Can you get cameras on us? Yeah. And then from there, they'll be watching what's happening. So it's a direct line. and it's a fantastic tool.

49:29Richie: Yeah.

49:30Gary: We're obviously not on that yet because we're not as established. We're still on our own.

49:32Richie: So who owns Town Watch? Who runs Town Watch?

49:35Gary: It's council operator. BCP, is it? Yeah, BCP.

49:37Richie: So have you spoken to them, so do us a favour, and we go to them and say, can you zoom in just to protect us?

49:41Gary: So that's what we're looking to do. We're waiting for another meeting with the council and the police. It was supposed to happen a couple of weeks ago, but it's been pushed back. I take that as a good sign. There can't be any major concerns, otherwise they would have been urgently trying to arrange that. So it's been pushed back a bit. but hopefully when we sort of progress with that this is when we're going to say look okay this is we're not going away yeah you can tell us we're not supporting you well that's fine you know as we're still frustrating for us though that has isn't it because we were told to push through hoops and jump through so we got them done in two days i think you got them done 48 hours every and then they cancelled the meeting and then again you've got some you had to do something you got done it again by friday they cancelled the meeting because the policies were so in depth they'd never have read them in time for the meeting.

50:24Gary: So that's fine. You know, it's not an issue. They've rescheduled, you know, and we'll get that done. But it's been postponed and postponed. Yeah, it's only twice. You know, that meeting will happen. But when that happens, that's when we want to say, okay, now that you've seen that we're here to stay, how do we work together, you know, to build a good relationship?

50:41Richie: At the end of the day, we're trying to make Bournemouth a better place. We're trying to make it a safer place. Surely the BCP will want to support what you're doing if you're doing it off your own back. surely town watch would go lad no problem you're down westover road there's something incident going down don't worry we're zoomed in we've zoomed in the people we've watched where they've gone off after us surely they'd go no problem at all it's just a lot easier it's moving a stick isn't it going right zoom in press the button zoom in we've got you yeah we'll work together it's got to be 10 times easier isn't it if we all push and pull we're just gonna how can how can you in a if you could wave a magic wand what would you like to see on town watch yeah

51:19Gary: we've got the 501 radio um a direct sort of uh i don't know a direct line to the police um perhaps so they have town watch meetings we'd like to be invited along to those you know so if we can go in and liaise with the local businesses um see what you know what they need from us listen to all the hot spots you know and work with those hot spots yeah yeah yeah um you know there are other systems in place that are used so maybe being invited to those as well um you know they have instant reporting systems that we could be invited to use with them uh it's only gonna benefit all of us if we're if we're filling that gap in the middle of the nighttime economy and i reference the nighttime economy because that's the hours that our patrols are out then surely it's better for all the venues as well you know if people feel safe coming people aren't going to bournemouth not because of the venues but they feel safe in the town so if they feel safe in the town it's going to be better for everybody yeah people will visit and use the hotels people will come

52:10Richie: down and go to the nightclubs to the restaurants agree the students will come to bournemouth university on mass yeah but if they're hearing stuff like this as a parent would i be going yeah i want to send my kid to bourn's university you'll be thinking twice yeah i'm going to go to bourn's and pool college opposite where the kfc and opposite some of the hotels around there am i going to think i'm going to think twice like the knock-on effect here is surely everyone in the whole town should get together yeah i don't know how this works i'm not into politics it's not my thing i'm just interviewing you so i can understand and anyone out there can actually listen and take their own view what what they think's right or what they think what's not right surely having you the police the media town watch council all coming together and going let's just make it work yeah let's not all stand and thinking oh someone's stepping on our toes someone's on our territory let's just make the bloody thing work please yeah please please like if you're listening out there just please make it work like it's it just seems such a no-brainer to me one what you've created i think is wonderful and i don't know anyone who thinks differently to that i don't know anyone everyone i you could just see it on socials you can see it when walking around the street but there's only so much that you guys can do that you need more support around you to know if there is an incident your life might be on the line you might have a you might have a young lady working with you who feels really intimidated she's ended up in some sort of trouble you guys need support yeah you know and and you need support for your mind health as well you're seeing incidents that you shouldn't see you're seeing stuff that maybe you don't want to see but you're going out of your own way to work till one two o 'clock three o 'clock in the morning to go do you know what our job's done thank you very much i'm gonna go and sleep well tonight because i've done something good for the town that's exactly what we do we want to be proud

53:50Gary: of everything we were doing we do feel proud of what we achieved already we're extremely proud

53:54Richie: of what you're doing and i tell you hear what you said as well to say that you know everybody thinks that that does make us extreme yeah i tell you now everyone is extremely proud of you

54:03Gary: extremely proud of you it does make you think sometimes because obviously negatives sound

54:08Richie: louder than the yeah but you know what's the bits you take in yeah but you can't yeah you can't you can't because you'll have two and a half thousand comments and then you'll have one person and there's only all the niceties oh lovely thank you we've actually spun a few of those around

54:23Gary: they're on side now the ones at the beginning were on there that used to really put us down we've actually turned them around at least and they're with us now they understand this you know

54:30Richie: what would be quite nice i don't know if anyone's listening that well i know there's going to be lots of people listening and watching this but if someone's against this why don't we get them have a chat i would be more than that why don't we sit around here around the table i'm impartial i love what you're doing but i would love to hear why someone feels safeguard force shouldn't be active around the town we'd like to know that you know at the start i completely understood

54:54Gary: because you know who these guys have come out you know you know they've got daggers on the logo yeah you know that's one of the things and you know i get it everyone's got an opinion the logo is the logo what we're doing should speak louder for us than a logo or a name you know so this there's obviously contention what's going on what are these guys about now that we've they've started to see it we're seeing the negativity drop i want to speak to that last 0.01 what was the problem yeah what do you think is wrong because the only thing i can come to as a solution is or reasoning for that is they aren't informed so they don't know you know they're people maybe they're the ones that are committing the crimes we're getting harder for them you've got to think why why would you still be against that yeah why are people having to think oh i've got to be a bit

55:35Richie: quiet that i do this i agree i want to still go back to this town watch thing yeah it sounds like a no-brainer to me it is yeah i'm in the control room i'm flicking left flicking right zooming in record button bam i've got your backs lads yeah who owns town watch bcp i believe so the so the council owned this system that can zoom in with all the cameras around the whole of town yeah to give information back to the police if there's been incidents and we're talking hundreds of cameras yes yeah yeah they just link from one to the next no yeah yeah i totally get it who do we have to get through who do you have to speak to to go lads no problem we'll do that for you that's surely that's one conversation to the top man of the council to say yeah no problem green

56:15Gary: tick do that for them again like richie said when we had this meeting with the police and the council that's one of the questions that was really brought up there isn't it yeah we didn't quite

56:23Richie: get to it yet did we and i and this conversation is i have full respect for the police by the way I think the police are doing a fabric job in a very, very difficult time. Very difficult. They're not getting paid enough. As are loads of other people we know in the hospitals and what have you and the fire brigade. But the police aren't getting paid enough. They're putting their lives on the line. There's a lot of red tape. There's probably a lot of people don't want to get involved in incidents because they've got a mortgage to pay. There's a lot of police who have got their own views on the policing, but they don't want to speak up or can't speak up because they've got a family, two young kids, they've got a car, they've got a mortgage to pay.

57:00Richie: So I understand. So it's a very difficult position for them to be in as well. And the police that I know are fully, fully supportive of what you guys do.

57:10Gary: Without sort of trying to highlight them too much, because I know it's probably a contentious subject, but they approach us in the streets. They thank us. And it's great because they say, don't give up, keep pushing. We want to see you guys out of your extra eyes and ears for us, which is all we want to be. you know and then and that this is support they need the support frankly you know even just as

57:30Richie: as an is gary richie i've i've really enjoyed this conversation i'm glad we can highlight what you guys are doing for the local area and for bournemouth itself because bournemouth has been a place since the 70s where people would travel all around the uk to come to bournemouth for their summer holidays when they couldn't afford flights to go away and we want to get back to where we all know and how bournemouth and beautiful bournemouth is because the beaches are beautiful and we want to get back to a super safe place where every person of people who are born here been here for 30 years 20 years 10 years five years are all super proud of our town yeah we've got an amazing football team we've got amazing festival going on we've got amazing things going on here there's a reason why people want to come and live and live the healthy lifestyle down here yeah we just need to tweak a few things get a load of the right people on board the bigger organisations and all workers want to make this town beautiful again definitely 100 % yeah mate I really appreciate your time lads I'm glad we had this conversation thanks for having us on yeah you're a gentleman and I wish you all the best and have you done thank you George yeah massive respect to both of you thank you and a massive respect to everyone involved in Safeguard Force everyone who's out there all your volunteers and all the new volunteers coming in we couldn't do without any of those guys yeah and remember you guys are doing this for free yeah walking the streets for free to help people feel safe again in the local town exactly that's it wonderful thank you very much for your time gentlemen I really appreciate it thanks and I look forward to seeing where this journey is going to take us absolutely thank you lovely cheers gents thanks hi guys I really hope you enjoyed that as much as I did can you do us a favour and leave us a review as it massively helps us grow the show cheers guys

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