'Doorstep policing' project for city |
| Written by yorkguides.co.uk | |
|
Neighbourhood teams to patrol electoral wards Mark Branagan (Yorkshire Post)
RESIDENTS fed up with reporting crimes to remote call centres are to get a new policing service on their doorstep as part of an experiment in North Yorkshire.The scheme aims to stop neighbourhood officers in York being called to deal with incidents elsewhere. Until now the force has been sending its constables from Fulford Road police station in York wherever they are needed in the city. Although there has been a community policing strategy, teams have often been called off the beat to act as reinforcements. But now the force is joining a national experiment to assign small teams of regular, special, and community officers whose job is purely to patrol one electoral ward. Nothing short of terrorism, murder, a rail crash or large-scale incident will cause commanders to pull the teams out, so they will be given plenty of scope to forge links with the community. The strategy harks back to the 1950s and 1960s when even the sleepiest villages had a small manned police station. But many were closed because there was not enough crime to justify keeping them open. The director of the Safer York Community Partnership, Jane Mowat, believes there is no danger of officers being underemployed in 2005 as the service embraces an growing number of roles. She said: "There is now a broad recognition in the police service they can tackle everything. In the past there was a tendency to divide things between crimes and problems." She also believed improving access to the police would help address some of public concern about having to ring one of two call centres – in York and near Northallerton – to alert officers to crimes. The other aim is to give residents the policing they want, rather than the sort of service which officers on the ground felt the residents needed. Area Commander Tim Madgwick said: "While we have been ahead of most forces regarding responding to the policing needs of neighbourhoods, there are still occasions when the police deliver what they perceive to be a local need, rather than what residents see as a priority. "It is crucial that we create systems and relationships where communities form an integral part in the direction of policing resources, and that we respond in harmony according to actual need." The scheme is the pilot for a strategy involving 43 forces across the country and will initially operate in five of the 22 electoral wards in York – Clifton, Dringhouses and Woodthorpe, Westfield, Micklegate, and Heworth. Teams will set out every day from Fulford Road on foot or bicycle to patrol their individual areas, establishing bases in schools and community centres. Ms Mowat said one of the main problems was fear of crime, as much as crime itself, the quiet areas tending to be the ones where residents were most apprehensive. She added: "All available data confirms crime is falling, yet around of 60 per cent people believe that crime has risen. We must address this gulf, and create neighbourhoods that are safe and feel safe." n Armed police surrounded a house in St John's Street, Scarborough, on Wednesday after complaints of a person being threatened with a pistol. A man in his 40s was arrested. |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|