THERE needs to be more investment in neighbourhood policing if the force is to continue to get results, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.<\/p>\n
Chair Steve Kent was speaking after Labour pledged to tackle crime by putting an extra 13,000 neighbourhood police officers and police community support officers back on Britain\u2019s streets.<\/p>\n
Steve backed the plan, saying that neighbourhood policing had been neglected in recent years, but he added that South Yorkshire Police was making great strides.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIn South Yorkshire it was a horror story when we basically got rid of neighbourhood policing 12 years ago. Now it\u2019s back, and we\u2019ve just received outstanding for our neighbourhood policing model, which is an unbelievable piece of work. It\u2019s remarkable for our resources. Now we\u2019ve got forces all over the country coming to the force to ask our advice, which is amazing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we do need to see, though, is more bums on seats in neighbourhood policing. The model\u2019s there, the structure\u2019s there, the mechanics are there, but we just got to put some more petrol in and we\u2019ve just got to get some of those resources in, because we\u2019re started to see results. I know that\u2019s something our Chief Constable is passionate about. We fully agree with that. And that reduces the strain on response policing, so it makes absolute sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s also a public confidence issue. We hope that will get better now that we\u2019ve got the systems in place. We want the local communities to start to recognise people more and more.\u201d<\/p>\n