Leicestershire Police has adopted a new neighbourhood policing model to ensure it’s able to deliver the best, most efficient service in the future.

The neighbourhood teams have been expanded to ensure more police officers are dealing with local issues and concerns. Four years of incident and crime data has been analysed along with other research to provide a highly accurate picture of demand and crime trends. This has enabled the Force to ensure it has the right officers in the right place at the right time, focusing on issues of local concern.

Every community in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland has a team dedicated to policing their neighbourhood - now known as Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNTs), made up of a Sergeant, a Beacon Officer, Police Community Support Officers and other Police Officers and special Constables. The Beacon Officers, many of whom are already well known in their communities, will be a principal named point of contact for the public. They have committed themselves to working on their neighbourhood for a minimum of three years to provide local knowledge and continuity.Response officers continue to be based at every local policing unit in the counties but will be supported by those who start and finish their shift at five hubs in Loughborough, Melton Mowbray, Market Harborough, Braunstone and Coalville. This ensures they are deployed in the most effective way across the counties and work across local authority boundaries.

Assistant Chief Constable Steph Morgan, who has led the project for the Force, said; “A great deal of hard work has gone into this review and we are confident that by realigning our staff in this way we will be better able to match demand. This isn’t about cutting costs it’s about delivering the best possible service but with tight financial conditions we are rightly looking at how we can work in the most efficient way. Our duty is to protect communities and that is at the heart of everything we do.“The newly expanded SNTs will take on greater responsibility for crimes and issues on their Neighbourhood while response officers will have more time to proactively patrol and respond to calls for assistance. Technology such as GPS tracking and mobile computing now enables us to intelligently deploy our people to make sure we use the nearest, best resource.

“If we are to meet the ever changing needs of a modern society the police service needs to adapt. Modern technology also enables our officers to patrol their neighbourhoods for longer without the need to return to their base station. This keeps local officers in the heart of their communities working alongside local residents and other organisations to tackle issues together.”

If you would like to find out who is in your Safer Neighbourhood Team then log on to www.leics.police.uk, click on local policing and find your beat. All SNTs are also using Twitter and Facebook and will be holding monthly beat surgeries.