A NEW study revealing the positive impact visible police patrols can have on crime has come as no surprise to South Yorkshire Police Federation.<\/p>\n
Chairman Steve Kent said the survey, carried out by Cambridge University, probably wasn\u2019t needed as the positive effects of having a visible police presence were \u2018obvious\u2019.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIt\u2019s just absolutely common sense. Whenever we see proactive patrols in an area following an incident or whatever has happened, the difference is absolutely amazing. It\u2019s absolute common sense that the more officers you have out on the streets, the more we\u2019re going to get from them and the more results we\u2019re going to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
The study showed that running a series of 15-minute long patrols equating to fours a week at London Underground stations cut crime by 21%.<\/p>\n
Patrols in the experiment focused on \u2018hot\u2019 crime days and hours, including weekends. The researchers are now recommending keeping the patrols in place.<\/p>\n
Steve added: \u201cI don\u2019t think it needs a survey to tell us this, it\u2019s obvious.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if it helps add a voice to the police\u2019s voice and another perspective then so be it. That statistic is in some ways encouraging because it\u2019s saying a relatively small difference in terms of patrolling makes a massive difference in terms of crime.<\/p>\n
\u201cImagine if we had double the police officers, you could see the crime percentage shrinking then.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s why we need these 20,000 extra officers, but we need a continued investment afterwards. If more keep coming through the door in five years, we could be looking at a totally different society in terms of crime and the fear factor about crime.\u201d<\/p>\n