More Investment Needed In Neighbourhood Policing

MORE investment is needed in neighbourhood policing, the Chair of South Yorkshire Police Federation has said, while acknowledging that the force has already made great strides.

Steve Kent was speaking as Labour announced its plans to put 13,000 extra police officers back on Britain’s streets to tackle neighbourhood crime. South Yorkshire Police has recently been judged ‘outstanding’ by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in areas including preventing crime and anti-social behaviour, and protecting vulnerable people.

Steve said: “The force has rightly been recognised for having one of the best infrastructures for neighbourhood policing in the country. Other forces from all over the country are coming to us now and asking us about it.

“But there needs to be continued investment, as well as getting response police back up to where it needs to be, and our protecting vulnerable people (PVP) critical roles back up to where they need to be.

“We need to continue to put resources into neighbourhoods because that deals with the root causes of most of the problems that end up coming the way of response and detectives. So, it’s an absolute no-brainer. We would like to see there be more police officers in neighbourhood policing as we grow, and we need to continue to grow beyond the numbers that the Government has paid for. It needs to be a long-term project.”