What?
Local Policing is provided by teams of police officers and Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) in each individual force, often together with Special Constables, local authority wardens, volunteers and partners. There are now 3,600 Neighbourhood Policing Teams (NPTs) across the UK.
Local Policing aims to provide people who live or work in a neighbourhood with:
- Access - to local policing services through a named point of contact
- Influence - over policing priorities in their neighbourhood
- Interventions - joint action with partners & the public
- Answers - sustainable solutions & feedback on what is being done
This means that neighbourhood teams:
- publicise how to get in touch with them
- find out what the local issues are that make people feel unsafe in their neighbourhood and ask them to put them in order of priority
- decide with partners and local people what should be done to deal with those priorities and work with them to deliver the solutions
- let people know what is being done and find out if they are satisfied with the results.
Why?
The Association of Chief Police Officer (ACPO) believes that local policing is the bedrock upon which the wider policing mission rests. We also believe that we exist to serve the public, and without public support we cannot properly discharge the duties with which we have been entrusted.
Local Policing is a central element to all forms of policing, stretching from the neighbourhood to the national, from the street dispute to the serious criminal organisation. The police force is here for the public, and without the public cannot carry out the duties to which it has been trusted. If the police are truly to make a difference, we must address perceptions of trust in and legitimacy of the police as well as providing ways of interacting with individuals, communities and families in order to deliver community based, appropriate and agreed outcomes for all.
Policing in England and Wales is underpinned by the principle of public consent. Without the support of the public reporting crimes and incidents, sharing what they know about perpetrators, anti-social behaviour and disorder, or identifying where tensions may be raised, the police cannot operate effectively.
Gaining and maintaining this consent is reliant upon the levels of confidence that the public have in the police, both locally and nationally. Improving public confidence is therefore a key challenge facing the service in a rapidly changing environment.
How?
The Criminal Justice and Local Policing Unit (CJLP) performs a key role in supporting forces to address and overcome operational challenges that are effecting improvements in public confidence and risks to the sustainability and stability of Local Policing. This involves:
- Working directly with forces to identify areas for concern
- Sharing effective practice that will improve performance and cost-effectiveness
- Monitoring trends in national delivery to ensure that forces have the appropriate infrastructure and level of resource investment to deliver public confidence
- Engaging key stakeholders to ensure that they have oversight of barriers to delivery
- Developing guidance and web-based national tools that support forces to engage with local communities and solve local problems.
Downloads available:
Useful Link:
Report a broken link on this webpage
