Police back on the beat after ‘losing touch’ with residents
We took our eye off the ball, says chief
HUNDREDS OF police officers are being put back onto the beat in Yorkshire after bosses admitted that neglecting neighbourhood policing had left them out of touch with what was going on in their communities.
The chief constable of South Yorkshire has revealed to The
Yorkshire Post that between 300 and 500 officers will be moved from response teams into locallybased roles focused on problemsolving and engaging with residents.
Stephen Watson, who took on the job last July, said his predecessors had “taken their eye off the ball” and allowed demand on officers to grow after becoming “too reactive” in the aftermath of the recent series of scandals that rocked the force.
He said this, combined with the effects of austerity cuts, meant that the force’s local presence had been reduced to being largely reliant on Police Community Support Officers, who do not have the power of arrest, with resources concentrated into centralised teams.
Mr Watson’s vision for neighbourhood policing, to be unveiled in full in September, will see hundreds of officers moved from 24/7 response teams, which deal with 999 calls, back into accessible roles in communities.
He said: “They will be responsible for working in your community and giving your community all of their focus as opposed to any other community.
“We have lost that, and as a result of losing that, we have lost the embeddedness of our people in local communities. It is so important we get that back.”
But the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, fears the force’s loss of 1,100 officers in recent years means the new model will not resemble what used to be in place.
Meanwhile, West Yorkshire Police has pledged to ‘rebuild’ its neighbourhood policing after the loss of hundreds of officers led to victim satisfaction rates falling, increases in crime and “isolated instances of community tension”.
Both forces were criticised in a recent report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary for allowing their neighbourhood policing functions to deteriorate. The report said the West Yorkshire force “lacks the means to understand its changing and emerging communities”.
The easing of austerity cuts has meant the force is increasing its manpower by 200 this year, 100 of whom will be going into neighbourhood policing roles.
THE ONLY regret about Chief Constable Stephen Watson’s enlightened approach to policing in South Yorkshire is that so much pain, and upheaval, had to be endured by the public and police alike to reach this point.
In one regard, Mr Watson’s appointment could not have been more opportune. His force’s reputation was so tarnished, and besmirched by so much scandal, that it could not have become any worse after the confluence of past and present controversies like Hillsborough, Orgreave, Rotherham and Sir Cliff Richard.
Yet it’s also taken leadership on his part to recognise that the vast majority of officers under his command had nothing to do with these scandals – many were not even born when the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike was taking place or the tragic FA Cup semi-final in 1989 – and that South Yorkshire Police was, contrary to perception, not rotten to the core.
For the record, it was negligent leadership and decision-making by police chiefs who should have known better which undermined the day-today work of front-line staff who Mr Watson regards, quite correctly, as his force’s greatest asset as he begins the painstaking task of changing his organisation’s entire culture.
As such, it’s very welcome that up to 500 officers are to resume ‘beat bobby’ roles later this year. Only by being seen to work with the law-abiding public will they be able to win back lost trust while rectifying failings in community policing highlighted by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary.
It won’t happen overnight. Mr Watson accepts this as he comes to the end of his first year at the helm.
He also knows that he will be judged by results and, therefore, has to make the very most of the resources at his disposal rather than complaining in public about austerity.
However, by leading by example, and setting the high standards that he has every right to expect of others, there’s no reason why Mr Watson’s reign should not represent a turning point in South Yorkshire Police’s troubled history.