‘More bobbies on the beat is best way to catch offenders’
TRADITIONAL bobbies on the beat play a crucial role in solving crime, a senior officer has said.
The old-fashioned policing policy has seen Durham Constabulary become the best force in the country for achieving justice.
Chief constable Mike Barton said its impressive detection rate of 18 per cent compared to 5 per cent in similar-sized forces had been boosted by ‘boots on the ground’.
Mr Barton said: ‘We have had the same cuts as everybody else but we didn’t cut our police community support officers (PCSOs).
‘We recognise the importance of boots on the ground in Durham and officers who actually know their neighbourhoods inside out.’ He said the closer the officer’s link with the community, ‘the more chance you have of getting somebody telling you who committed those crimes, getting witness statements and sealing a conviction’. The strategy is in stark contrast to the rest of England and Wales. Home Office figures show the number of PCSOs, said to be the ‘eyes and ears’ of the community, dropped from 1 ,393 in 2012 to 10,205 last year.
The Police Foundation, an independent policing think tank, published a study last year that concluded: ‘It is clear that the cuts imposed in the years of austerity have substantially diminished the effectiveness of neighbourhood policing.’