Give Time And Resources To Neighbourhood Policing

Local policing teams need the time and resources to do real problem-solving in society, as “the public wants to see more neighbourhood cops”, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

Chair Steve Kent (pictured) was speaking after the College of Policing and National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) held a neighbourhood policing ‘week of action’ in January. During the week they celebrated the achievements of neighbourhood policing and provided opportunities and support for officers.

Steve said that South Yorkshire now had strong neighbourhood policing teams, and that they had a positive impact on demand.

He said: “Our force made the bad decision a while ago to remove neighbourhood officers and integrate them into response officers, but thankfully that’s been reversed over the past couple of years.

“Neighbourhood teams are back, and we need to recognise that. If you can get your neighbourhood teams right and you can get them dealing with problem-solving in society, that cuts demand off at the source and it can have a really positive outlook for the force.”

Steve said South Yorkshire Police wasn’t struggling to attract officers to the role, but that neighbourhood policing teams would have more resources once the new intake of probationary officers was fully trained up.

He said: “I know our force is prioritising neighbourhood policing, but the problem we’ve got at the moment is that we simply don’t have enough resources to meet demand. So sometimes our neighbourhood officers get drawn into other areas, like response policing, and they’re not necessarily able to always do the problem-solving work that they do.

“But the positive stance on this story is that the more cops come through, the more pressure will be released, so they can actually get on with dealing with those issues. Because there are no two ways about it, the public wants to see more neighbourhood cops.”

He added: “Our infrastructure in terms of neighbourhoods is good and it’s ahead of the game. The posts are gradually getting filled and they’ll be expanded, but ultimately the aim is that the people in those posts can be given a lot more time to be proactive rather than having to be reactive. That’s a key thing.”