What is Neighbourhood Policing?

Neighbourhood Policing is a national Home Office initiative and is considered a key part of the Police Reform agenda. The Home Office has set a target for dedicated Neighbourhood teams to be operating in every community across the country by 2008. The aims of the initiative are:

• Effective crime-reduction - By working directly with local communities. Local people, the police service and public sector agencies will work in partnership to deal with crime and anti-social behaviour. Therefore people who are actually affected by problems of crime and disorder, who are often best placed to find solutions right for that area, have a say in what the priorities are. This will also assist the Police in using an intelligence-led approach to place the right resources to deal appropriately with the particular problems of different neighbourhoods and enhance crime detection.
• Public Reassurance – Through the provision of a dedicated, visible neighbourhood policing team. Surrey has the highest level of public confidence in policing in the country. To build on this progress neighbourhood policing aims to increase the level of contact between the police and communities so that people know their local Neighbourhood Specialist Officer (NSO)/ Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) by name, face or both and have the opportunity to work in partnership with their neighbourhood police team to tackle local issues.

This national initiative applied locally through Surrey Police’s ‘Safer Neighbourhoods’ strategy is designed to create neighbourhoods in Surrey that are safe and feel safe. Surrey Police intends to do this through the deployment of dedicated Safer Neighbourhood Teams across the County to tackle the issues that concern local people.

What are Safer Neighbourhood Teams?

Neighbourhood teams are comprised of Neighbourhood Specialist Officers (NSOs) Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) and Specials as the dedicated representatives of the police family. NSOs are police constables who have the full range of powers, training, tactics and equipment as all police constables across Surrey.

PCSOs have been given 13 designated powers to allow them to deal with sub criminal anti-social behaviour and minor offending encountered in their neighbourhoods.

The Safer Neighbourhood Teams report to their Borough or District’s Neighbourhood Inspector. The Neighbourhood Inspector is also responsible for the Community Safety Team comprising a Sergeant and teams who are responsible for casualty reduction, crime reduction, youth affairs and licensing issues. Neighbourhood Inspectors report into the Neighbourhood Superintendent or Neighbourhood Manager for the Police Division. Surrey Police has a total of four divisions across the County.

To find out about your local Safer Neighbourhood Team please visit the Surrey Police Neighbourhood Policing website by clicking on this link www.surrey.police.uk/compol.asp and use the postcode search on the left-hand side of the page.

How can I get involved in Neighbourhood Policing for my area?

In order to identify local priorities and find out about community concerns, Surrey Police’s safer neighbourhood teams run regular neighbourhood panels or surgeries in your area.

A neighbourhood panel is an informal local public meeting, where members of the community can discuss issues that concern them with local police and partners. Joint decisions can be made as to which are the most important or pressing issues and which need to be dealt with as a priority. These meetings are normally arranged and set up by the local Neighbourhood Specialist Officer (NSO) or Police Community Support Officer (PCSO). They are stand alone meetings (i.e. not an item on the agenda of another organised meeting) but they can be organised under their own identity or as part of another organisation’s meetings programme (e.g. they could be sponsored by a local residents association or Parish Council).

To find out about dates and venues of your next local Neighbourhood Panel meeting please visit www.surrey.police.uk/compol.asp and use the postcode search on the left-hand side of the page.