Bedfordshire’s police and crime commissioner (PCC) said a strategy for enhancing community policing will be in place by March next year – if all goes to plan.
The PCC, John Tizard, launched part one of his police and crime plan last week and said it “reflects very much” his manifesto.
Read: Top cop endorses Bedfordshire’s Police and Crime Plan
“And that is we need to do wherever is possible, and where there are resources, to get more police officers and support officers into the community,” he said.
“By March 2025 we’ll have a strategy for enhancing community policing across the county.
“It’s about having community police officers and support officers who are visible working in defined local areas. So they can get a real good knowledge of those areas and people living there get a good knowledge of them.”
The PCC pointed out that people talk about community policing, local policing and neighbourhood policing.
He said: “We get all these words mixed up.
“For me it’s about having police officers who are undertaking community or neighbourhood work in a particular area and having that relationship, so they will be visible, they will be on the streets, but let’s not forget that at any one place there’s a lot of police activity.
“It’s not only community police officers with that label that are actually providing that service. Response, for example, I see as part of local policing, but they’re not deemed to be community police officers.
“And clearly, there’s a lot of police support for serious crime in every area and specialist support. I want to see an enhancement to policing in every area but with a community focus led by a community team.”
The police and crime plan says the PCC will “ensure that Home Office requirements of one continuous 15-minute patrol in each hotspot every three days is met”.
But what is a hotspot?
“Over the next six months whilst we develop that strategy we’ll be very clear about what hotspots policing is, and define it and be much more open with the public about what they could expect in particular areas,” the PCC said.
“We have to police where there is need, I want to see an equitable distribution and allocation of resources. Not going to equal the allocation of resources because demands are not the same in every place.
“But we need to be very clear with communities, with neighbourhoods, with residents, about what they can expect in any particular place from the police.”
The PCC added that there are more policing hubs in the pipeline, including ones opening in Bedford and Ampthill.
The PCC said: “Some will be where police officers are going to be available for some hours in a week. It might be on a Saturday morning in one place, it might be on Friday afternoon somewhere else.
“We’re not going to be seeing lots of mini police stations across the county because we can’t afford that. And it’s not a good use of police time because if police officers are there having to officiate and run the hub they’re not actually out on the streets doing their job.”
By John Guinn
Local Democracy Reporter
