New police hub in town to keep officers ‘on the beat’
A new police investigation hub is being launched, in a bid to try to speed up investigations and keep officers on the street.
The Scarboorugh hub will open on April 27 and is aimed at tackling persistent offences, such as theft and criminal damage, freeing up other teams to deal with more serious crimes.
North Yo rk s hi re Pol i c e say the hubs are designed to streamline the investigative process and will speed up justice for victims.
They will be based alongside each of the force’s custody suites.
“The public tell me that their number one priority is their local neighbourhood policing team, which need more resources.,” said police com- missioner Julia Mulligan.
“These demands, alongside a shrinking budget, mean changes have to be made.
“The i nvestigation hubs will free up local officer time, allowing them to handover detainees rather than spend hours in the station filling in forms.”
The new hubs are part of a £10 million investment i n technology from the force, with the intention of keeping officers out “on the beat”.
That will i nclude equipping them with the technology to carry out on-the-spot CCTV processing, drug testing and examination of mobile devices for evidence. This reduces the need for potential evidence to be processed by other departments and therefore reducing time delays in gathering evidence.
A new d e d i c at e d c yb e r c r i me d e pa r t ment i s a l s o b e i n g l au n c h e d t o t a c k l e things such as online fraud. Assistant Chief Constable Paul Kennedy, who is leading the Operational Polici n g Model , s a i d : “We are taking action now, to ensure that North Yorkshire Police is equipped to deliver a better service to victims of crime, now and i nto the future, despite the financially constrained times ahead.
“The I nvesti gat i on Hub concept is a new way of work-
April 27 When the hub
will begin
ing and has been implemented elsewhere in the country. It has been shown to simplify the way the police interact with victims, and speed up access to justice.”