In more detail
Community safety is an important factor in local quality of life. How well the police do their job – and how well they work with communities and the other agencies – plays a big part in this. Working better with the police and other local agencies might be a more effective way of improving your neighbourhood than starting out on a neighbourhood spatial plan.
Policing in England is provided by 39 local police forces. Six of which - covering London and the metropolitan county areas of West Midlands, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Merseyside – serve a total population of more than 19 million people in the largest conurbations in the country. Police forces outside London are headed by a Chief Constable who is accountable to an elected Police and Crime Commissioner. The Metropolitan Police is headed by a Commissioner who is accountable to the elected Mayor of London.
Police forces divide their areas up into Basic Command Units (BCUS, but also called Divisions, Local Policing Units, Operational Command Units or Districts depending on your local force). The boundaries of Police BCUs tend to follow the same boundaries as the local councils. A BCU in an urban area might cover about 300,000 people (the size of a borough council), but it varies from place to place. Typically, a BCU is headed by an officer with the rank of Chief Superintendent.
Neighbourhood Police
Neighbourhood policing has its roots in the Scarman Report on the riots in Brixton in 1981; and the development of community policing in the United States from the 1970s onwards. (Although the idea that the police exist to work with the consent of community can be traced back to the principles set down by Sir Robert Peel in founding modern policing in the 1820s).
In response to Scarman, a Reassurance Policing Programme was piloted in eight force areas in the1990s. It aimed to reduce crime and the fear of crime and improve public confidence by engaging with communities, targeting their main concerns and priorities and providing a visible and accessible presence in eight forces. This led to the rollout of A Neighbourhood Policing Programme across England in 2005 with dedicated neighbourhood policing teams and including the (then, newly introduced) Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) .
Neighbourhood police teams in large cities like Birmingham and Manchester typically consist of a sergeant, between two, and a dozen, police constables and two, and a dozen, PCSOs. In London, Safer Neighbourhoods Teams cover smaller areas and are more often made up by a sergeant, a PC and a PCSO. Each police neighbourhood area may produce a list of neighbourhood priorities and a plan for achieving them in consultation with local residents and people who use the area, councillors and businesses. Neighbourhood policing may also support groups of residents acting as neighbourhood watches and organize regular public Neighbourhood Tasking meetings or walkabouts.
Getting to know your neighbourhood policing team and taking part in meetings and consultations that help to set their priorities are ways of influencing how your area is policed.
Police and Crime Commissioners
Police and Crime Commissioners are representatives of the residents, elected every four years, who are: responsible for holding the police to account on behalf of the public; and specifically for holding the chief constable to account for the performance of officers and staff. There is a PCC for every local police force except the Metropolitan Police (which covers the area represented by the elected Mayor of London). The PCC holds the funding for policing in a force area and, after consulting the chief constable, is accountable for how it is spent. The video below is by the PCC in Norfolk - it explains what Police and Crime Commissioners can do:
The PCC sets the strategic aims and direction for the police force in a Police and Crime Plan. The PCC must produce this plan in the first financial year after they are elected. The Police and Crime Plan for your area must include:
- The PCC's police and crime objectives
- The policing the Chief Constable is to provide
- The financial and other resources the PCC will make available to the Chief Constable to provide policing
- How the Chief Constable will report to the PCC about policing
- How the Chief Constable's performance will be measured
- Information about any crime and disorder reduction grants to be made by the PCC, any conditions made.
A Police and Crime Plan can last for a PCC's whole term in office or they may update it during their term. In any case, the PCC is required to produce an annual report to the public on progress in policing against the plan aims and objectives. The PCC can sack the chief constable if circumstances require it. The PCC is responsible for appointing a new chief constable.
The work of PCCs is scrutinised by Police and Crime Panels which are made up of a representative from each of the local government districts covered by them and two independent co-opted members. You can influence police plans by taking part in the consultations organized around the PCC plans for your area and by making contact with the PCC and/or their deputy and the member of the Police Panel representing your area.
| Key Facts:
You can work with and influence the police at three main levels: the neighbourhood police team which is led by a sergeant; the Basic Command Unit which probably covers the same area as the borough you live in and is run by a Chief Superintendent; and at the level of the Police and Crime Commissioner who oversees the work of the whole of your local police force. For neighbourhood and resident groups, the first link to make is with your neighbourhood team. They may organise local tasking meetings or you can invite a member of the neighbourhood policing team to a local meeting you organise. |
Page Links from here
The Police UK site provided by the government gives you information about policing and links to your local neighbourhood policing team, the force covering your area and your local PCC. You can also see the Crime Map for your neighbourhood.
The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners has a map of PCC areas and more information about PCCs
The Police Foundation, a thinktank which focuses on policing, published a review of Neighbourhood Policing: Past, Present and Future in 2015 as a PDF
On this site, see:
OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.
BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.
| created: 2016-06-13 11:45:04 | by: admin | status: f published |