\u201cWe need to see our neighbourhood teams growing, because neighbourhood policing is absolutely vital,\u201d South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.<\/p>\n
Chair Steve Kent was speaking during Neighbouhood Policing Week (22-26 January). He said: \u201cI think there\u2019s a lot of misconceptions about what neighbourhood policing is. It deals with the ongoing issues that cause the most demand for police forces. To deal with the problems that are going on in neighbourhoods, to stop them spreading out in terms of crime and antisocial behaviour.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes our force says that neighbourhood policing is the top of the pyramid in terms of what it does that has an effect on response. They\u2019re right, because if you can stop crime at the root cause, you stop crime for the response officers.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I also think that all our officers, in our critical frontline detective roles, our response roles, our traffic roles, are as important as each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve added that although South Yorkshire Police has been rated very highly for neighbourhood policing, the officers in that role could sometimes feel that they were just a support network for response policing.<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cWe need to see our neighbourhood teams growing, because neighbourhood policing is absolutely vital. We as a force really noticed the impact when neighbourhood policing was decimated, and that hole that was left has only just been repaired now.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring Neighbourhood Policing Week, unfortunately our welfare van wasn\u2019t ready to go round all the stations, but we will do that soon. And if anybody wants to come and see me and discuss issues, please let me know and I\u2019ll come to any of their briefings.\u201d<\/p>\n