Fewer community PCs ‘out on beat’
THERE could be fewer neighbourhood police on the beat in Lancashire in future – but those who remain in the role will not be diverted from their duties to help with emergency calls.
A core services review by Lancashire Constabulary is seeking to solve the problem of community officers being drafted in to help colleagues in other parts of the force.
Temporary Ch Insp Gary Crowe told a specially-convened meeting of Chorley Council’s overview and scrutiny committee that neighbourhood officers had been “unable to put as much time and effort into the role as they would like”, because of increased demand elsewhere.
He said that only 20% of the force’s time was currently being spent on crime-related calls, with the rest taken up by broader social issues – including dealing with people suffering mental health crises.
“If we are constantly taking neighbourhood officers away from their areas to help with emergency calls, then we have underestimated how many of those emergency responders we need,” Ch Insp Crowe said.
The meeting heard that some neighbourhood officers will be permanently redeployed but the remainder will be “ring-fenced” to focus on their community role full-time.
Ch Insp Crowe emphasised the value of the intelligence that comes from local communities, often via neighbourhood officers.
He said: “Not every individual piece of intelligence can be acted on, but it all helps to paint a bigger picture. We get a lot of information, but that only be-comes intelligence when it has been verified and graded.
“We also receive intelligence from informants and it all comes together to help us make links between people. We are constantly trying to take out the top tier of criminal activity in order to cause everything else to collapse.”
Police and Community Support Officers will not be affected by the planned changes to neighbourhood roles.
Councillors were also told that the fear of knife crime had “travelled north” after a spate of incidents in the capital.
But Lancashire Constabulary – while monitoring the issue - had noticed no increased prevalence, outside some gang-related activity in Skelmersdale.