‘Vigilantism is the act of individuals or groups taking the law into their own hands to enforce order or exact justice, operating outside the sanctioned legal system. This typically arises from a perception that official institutions are ineffective, corrupt, or too slow in addressing crime or injustice. While often motivated by a desire for retribution or community protection, vigilantism involves unsanctioned actions such as investigation, apprehension, or punishment, which bypass established legal procedures and the principle of due process. Consequently, it undermines the rule of law and can lead to cycles of violence, miscarriages of justice, and the very disorder it purports to combat.’
A stark and necessary condemnation has finally been levelled at the self-appointed vigilante groups patrolling Bournemouth. Dorset’s Police and Crime Commissioner, David Sidwick, has exposed the uncomfortable truth these groups so desperately try to obscure: they exist to solve “a problem which doesn’t exist.”
This is not community spirit; it is a dangerous charade. These groups, with their self-important patrols, are not guardians of public safety but agents of division. As Mr Sidwick rightly highlighted, they operate with no statutory powers, no disciplinary systems, and no formal accountability to the public. This isn’t a neighbourhood watch; it is a recipe for intimidation and potential abuse.
The Commissioner’s account of a resident feeling intimidated by their presence is telling. It reveals the other side of the vigilante coin—the creation of a climate of fear, not its alleviation. Without the rigorous training and legal frameworks that bind the real police, these groups inevitably stray into territory that risks becoming harassment, unlawful detention, or worse. Their very presence is a threat to the social fabric they claim to protect.
But what is their true purpose? The Commissioner pinpointed it with precision. These groups actively peddle a narrative of a Bournemouth under siege, “throwing juicy bones to the mainstream media and certain social media individuals who only have one thing in mind, which is their own ‘clicks’ or their own popularity.”
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This is the core of their insidious strategy. They must continually fabricate and exaggerate danger to justify their own existence. They feed a cycle of sensationalism that tarnishes the town’s reputation, all for the sake of online notoriety and a misplaced sense of purpose. This is done in blatant disregard of the facts: with total crime down by 8 per cent and violent crime falling, their alarmist rhetoric is not just inaccurate, it is destructive.
The question from Cllr Rampton—”Is there not something you can do to say they are not approved of?”—misses the point. The disapproval is already a matter of public record. The solution is not just official condemnation, but a collective rejection of their toxic narrative by the people of Bournemouth.
As Mr Sidwick stated, the antidote is the truth. The truth that Bournemouth is a town where the vast majority live and visit safely and happily. The truth that these vigilantes are an answer to a question nobody asked, creating a problem where there is none to fuel their own relevance.
They are not a solution. They are the problem. It is time they were seen as such.
Ah.
The uniformed wing of Reform UK Limited.