Beating at the heart of our communities

NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE

Our Neighbourhood Policing Teams are made up of Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs), and Neighbourhood Beat Officers who work closely alongside Special Constables, Community Cohesion Officers, and other teams across our force conducting warrants, high visibility patrols, school visits and a variety of community engagement activities to really understand and listen to what’s important to our communities.

Often referred to as ‘bobbies on the beat’, the work undertaken by our neighbourhood policing teams really does ‘beat’ at the heart of our communities, which they all live and work in too.

Neighbourhood Policing is so much more than just community engagement, it’s an opportunity to really make a difference in tackling crimes that are of most concern to those local residents and collaborating with local authorities and other partners to gather information, problem-solve and prevent crime from happening in the first place.

They deep dive into the different issues that each community face – there’s no one size fits all approach, and to find out more about how it all works, as part of this week’s Neighbourhood Policing Week of Action we spoke to Neighbourhood Policing Sergeant Sarah Jackson who covers the Barton and Brigg areas of Scunthorpe.

Why do you think neighbourhood policing so important?

“Neighbourhood Policing aims to build trust and partnership with communities and to prevent and solve problems rather than just react to incidents.

“I love that we get to work so closely with local residents and businesses, gather real time information, and involve others delivering creative preventative solutions.

“More recently this has involved completing plain clothed drugs operations where we work as a team with Special Constables patrolling both in vehicles and on foot where we have received drug related intelligence.

“We have secured a criminal behaviour order for a prolific shoplifted who was identified as being connected to a number of offences in and around Barton.

“Anti social behaviour remains a priority for the teams and we’re currently undertaking a lot of problem-solving work alongside partner agencies to alleviate issues in areas affected. We use a problem solving approach whilst considering, criminal and civil orders or addressing vulnerabilities and safeguarding concerns.

“We have regular meetings with local councillors, Neighbourhood watch co-ordinators, town and parish councils and our KINS members, and housing associations to be on the front foot of any emerging issues each respective establishment is hearing about so we can work together to create a plan of action to tackle them appropriately.

“Ultimately, neighbourhood policing can improve quality of life and safety of the communities, with many members of the Barton and Brigg communities saying Neighbourhood Policing is at the heart of the community.

Local Councillor Paul Vickers said: “The local policing team are very active within the Barton community and are involved in many activities to help reduce crime and anti social behaviour.

“The local policing team worked closely with other organisations to talk with young people which helped develop a successful bid for a youth club which is now held regularly in Barton on a Friday evening which is managed by Barton Town Council.”

So, what does Neighbourhood policing work strive to achieve?

“There are so many elements to it, but the main things we prioritise are:

• Deep diving into the cause of ongoing problems and proactively working to prevent crimes from happening in the first place, rather than just reacting to incidents as they come in.
• Helping communities develop informal social controls and to police themselves by offering security advice and ways to report which are easily available.
• Improve relationships with communities and build rapport with partners, stakeholders and residents.
• Making police work more effective as people are more likely to report crimes and provide intelligence if they have that relationship with their local officers, trust them, and understand what work is being done to act upon the issues they are reporting or telling us about.
• Striving to make life better and safer for everyone in the communities we serve by being a constant presence by being out and about, attending community centres, schools, and other events to get to know local residents, and gather that intel in a ‘You said, we did’ approach so that people can see tangible results from policing action.
• Be a trusted presence within the community, working closely with people and using a range of problem-solving skills to address community issues such as anti social behaviour and neighbour disputes."

Do you have any upcoming community surgeries where people can come along and speak to the team about their concerns?

We do! Keep an eye on the local Humberside Police – North Lincolnshire Facebook page or pop your postcode in on the homepage of our website to find out more and join us at a surgery that suits you.

You can also pop into our front officers at Barton and Brigg to discuss any issues you may be experiencing, complete your HumberTalking survey and sign up to My Community Alert for all the latest news in your area.