Police Information

Humberside Launce New Policing Style.

Thu, September 20, 2001

Source: Humberside Police

Chief Constable David Westwood launches new policing style for Humberside.

 

Humberside Police has launched a brand new style of policing in what it calls “a period of great change”.  

It is recreating a police force whose officers are taken out of stations and offices and put out onto the streets, solving local problems for local communities.  

Humberside Police has placed great importance on the need for consultation. Staff have carried out surveys, listened to public debate, made contact with minority communities, spoken to business leaders and questioned those who come into contact with the police. This is something the force will continue to do.

But the message has been clear – police officers are needed and wanted on the streets where they can offer protection, help and reassurance. 

That is the philosophy of the newly reorganised Humberside Police and where Local Policing Teams come into the picture. 

The Humberside Police area was previously divided into four divisions covering North East Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire, East Riding of Yorkshire and Kingston-upon-Hull. 

A team of senior officers managed each division. Police officers in each division patrolled their division and responded to calls for their service. They were supported when necessary by specialist force units, such as CID officers, traffic officers, dog officers, support officers. 

Now each division operates differently. The divisional map has been carved up into much smaller and more manageable areas – called Local Policing Areas – and each area has a dedicated team of police officers – a Local Policing Team –  whose only responsibility is to serve those people living and working in their area. 

Each team is made up of officers with very diverse skills – the specialist force units will be disbanded and those officers will each join a Local Policing Team – and they will be using their skills as part of a whole team working for just one community and its residents. 

In launching the Local Policing Teams, Chief Constable David Westwood said: 

Humberside Police is embarking on an exciting future which promises to see more officers back on the beat, solving local problems and ensuring people feel safe in their homes. 

In September 2001, we are introducing ‘Local Policing Teams’ – a concept which takes police officers out of large, central stations and puts them within the community, where they are needed. 

This is a substantial departure from the way Humberside has been policed before and builds on the success of our ‘Quality of Life’ policing style which has already see crime dramatically and consistently fall over the last three years.

 We exist, as a service, to meet the needs of the public for security against crime. People do not want to be victims of crime. They want to feel safe in their homes and on the streets. 

'Quality of Life' Policing is very simple and straightforward. We will deliver policing services to the public in the style they want. They want to see us patrolling in uniform so that we can meet their need to feel safe. They want us to reduce crime, disorder and road casualties.

This impacts on how we deliver policing services. Working out of large police stations, detached from the life of local communities does not meet public need.

This is why we are now moving to a more locally based system for service delivery, where teams of officers, under clear local leadership of an Inspector and number of Sergeants, will be responsible for solving local problems and making the public safe and feel safe. Teams will also have their own CID and traffic officers, enabling them to deal with a whole range of issues at a local level.

We have achieved an enormous amount in the last three years. We have steadily reduced crime by 5.8%, 7.1% and 9.1% each year respectively. Last year alone we reduced house burglary by 25 percent. Moving to a more local team based approach is the next logical step.  

The increase in money from the Police Authority has allowed us to recruit more officers in Humberside than we have ever had before. It will also give us sufficient money to provide local police stations. We will soon be embarking on a programme of building new, local police stations so that our new Local Policing Teams will be firmly based in their own areas.

This is a very exciting time for policing in Humberside. We are a successful force, setting the standard in style of service delivery for others to follow. 

We will continue to provide the residents and visitors to our region the protection, help and reassurance they deserve from Humberside Police.

Chairman of the Humberside Police Authority, Coun Colin Inglis, added:  

Humberside Police is already one of the most successful forces in the country and the Police Authority is convinced that Local Policing Teams, bringing the Police closer to the communities they serve, can only improve on this success. 

People will get to know their local team and members of the team will get to know them. 

September 3rd is an exciting day for us and an important one for the people of the Humberside policing area, re-emphasising the traditional style of policing by consent, embodied in the Force motto ‘Protect, Help and Reassure’.