A responsive neighbourhood police service.
The next stage of Labour's police reform will deliver a police service that is visible,
responsive and accountable to the communities it serves - and will provide dedicated
neighbourhood policing teams, said Home Secretary David Blunkett this week in a new
White Paper, 'Building Communities, Beating Crime'.
This builds on the success of the Labour government on tackling crime: a 30 per cent
reduction in crime; the chance of being victim of crime is at its lowest since the
British Crime Survey began in 1981.
This second stage of reform is about establishing neighbourhood policing as the norm,
not the exception, delivering a modernised, localised policing service which is fit
for the challenges of the 21st century backed up by strong national infrastructures.
The new community-focused teams of police officers, backed up by police Community Support
Officers (CSOs) and police support staff will use community-based intelligence to tackle
local crime.
They will be embedded in their local community, tackling the issues of
concern to local people and being held to account by those local people, with the
community getting new powers to 'trigger' action where their police force, local
authority or other community safety partners are not delivering.
Within the White Paper, there are three key themes:-
The spread of neighbourhood policing for the 21st century to every community.
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Improved responsiveness and customer service.
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Every community to benefit from
neighbourhood policing by 2008; the government will deliver 25,000 CSOs and
wardens by 2008.
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Further modernisation of the police workforce to ensure that the service is fully equipped
and able to deliver these changes. Increased use of police staff to get officers back on
the front line; maximising the effectiveness of CSOs; and making faster progress on
diversity.
Greater involvement of communities and citizens in determining how their communities
are policed. Information on policing to be provided to every household; local communities
to have the right to trigger action by the relevant agencies to deal with acute or
persistent problems of crime or anti-social behaviour and strengthened police authorities
will be more closely connected with and visible to their communities.
The White Paper also stresses the crucial importance to public confidence of the police
service getting contact with the public right. It includes a new national three-digit
non-emergency telephone number to be in place by the end of 2006, national minimum standards
for call handling and more information for victims and the wider community.
These reforms are backed by the police with commitments that people should:
- Be and feel safer in their homes and community;
- Be treated better as victims of or witnesses to crimes, and have greater confidence
that if they are a victim, the offender will be caught and brought to justice;
- Know who their local police officer, community support officer and wardens are - and
who is in charge locally - and how they can be contacted.
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