New plan to bring police and communities closer

A new model of neighbourhood policing has been launched in Nottinghamshire, putting more officers in the right place at the right time.

The shake-up of shift patterns is designed to better serve communities and improve public trust and confidence.

It means people across all 12 neighbourhood policing areas will see a consistent presence of bobbies on the beat.

Officers will no longer be taken off patch to fulfil other police needs – such as working city centre shifts on Friday and Saturday nights or football matches on weekends – with that demand now fulfilled by other resources including response teams.

Neighbourhood policing resources are now safeguarded so they can be dedicated to working shoulder-to-shoulder with the community and being visible, accessible and familiar to people in their neighbourhoods.

The new model, which started being phased in from October, is already starting to have an impact, with neighbourhood policing teams having some significant successes linked to the new way of working - including a recent arrest of a man in connection with a stalking investigation and a successful shoplifting crackdown.

Chief Constable Kate Meynell, of Nottinghamshire Police, said the new neighbourhood policing model aimed to ensure resources were being utilised at the times the public needed them most. She said:

“Nottinghamshire Police is a busy force, with around 1,000 calls for service a day from the public – which is a substantial demand.

“Demand has changed over time and this new neighbourhood policing model is enabling Nottinghamshire Police to meet that by being data driven and putting resources where the demand is.

“The core pillars of neighbourhood police are problem solving, targeted activity, and community engagement. These elements are essential for reducing repeat demand and building trust and confidence within our local communities.”

One of the early signs of success was a swift arrest following several reports of an unknown man looking into windows, watching students in the Lenton area.

The City Central neighbourhood policing team became aware of the pattern and a problem-solving plan was put in place, with officers on day shifts capturing evidence by speaking to victims, and their colleagues on a later shift using this information to target the right time and location with a mixed uniform and plain-clothes operation – which led to the arrest of a 44-year-old man on suspicion of stalking and harassment with fear of violence – ready for CID to pick up the following morning. 

Having teams available on two shift patterns throughout the day and evening on each neighbourhood policing area means they are in their communities when they are needed most and have a greater ability to work together with the community to deal with local issues swiftly and effectively to provide community reassurance.

The City South neighbourhood policing team has also seen some recent success in tackling retail crime thanks to the extra resource under the new model, by targeting the persistent offenders responsible for the vast majority of thefts through custodial sentences and criminal behaviour orders.

The roll-out of the new model follows a pledge by Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner Gary Godden earlier this year to enhance the capacity and effectiveness of neighbourhood policing teams across the city and county.

Commissioner Godden said:

“I firmly believe that enhancing the neighbourhood policing service is one of the keys to restoring public confidence in policing as a whole.

“Under this new model, there will be an uplift in officer numbers in the neighbourhood policing role and shift patterns have changed to ensure there are officers on duty in all 12 neighbourhood areas every day, throughout the day and into the evening.

“As well as that, neighbourhood officers will no longer be routinely taken out of their core role to support the night-time economy – leaving them to do what they do best, which is engaging with local people and working with them to problem-solve and carry out targeted activity on issues that matter to local people.

“It means people will see more bobbies on the beat in the areas where they live and work and can get to know their local officers and build that relationship of trust and confidence. This is a plan to make all of our communities safer, whether they are urban or rural communities.

“This model allows officers to identify community concerns and take prompt, effective, targeted action against those concerns by focussing on them as local priorities to ensure communities feel safe and listened to.”

The improvements to neighbourhood policing are also intended to support a change programme after His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire Services raised a concern about the force diverting police officers and police community support officers from their main duties to deal with other areas of demand.

It is estimated that the removal of the need to carry out night-time economy duties will save neighbourhood policing teams nearly 22,000 hours a year – which they can use on the front line in their communities.

Longer term reductions in event abstractions will also save at least 15,600 hours a year.

Night-time economy and events policing will still be appropriately resourced, but using other policing teams such as response and tactical support officers and utilising overtime where necessary.

Another element of the new policing model has been the introduction of new Multi-Agency Problem Solving (MAPS) meetings, with each of the neighbourhood policing teams meeting monthly with community safety teams at their local councils to consider crime and antisocial behaviour trends and tackle them in a collaborative way.

Officers are also using the Notts Alerts community messaging tool to engage with the public, using surveys to ask them what issues are causing concern in their neighbourhoods. People who sign up to the free service can give their feedback to their local neighbourhood policing team, but can also receive information to their email inbox, including crime prevention advice and alerts about crime and antisocial behaviour in their local area.

To sign up for Notts Alerts, visit Home Page - Notts Alerts