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Neighbourhood Policing

I would not want to intrude on matters relating to the hon. Gentleman's constituency by saying where his constituents should or should not have police stations. I am a little hesitant about supporting the maintenance of bricks and mortar as the place where the service should be delivered. As I said, there have been some innovative ideas in my constituency, where the police can gather and meet the public out on their patrols, and that has proved highly successful. Perhaps it is a case of horses for courses. One solution may be appropriate for one place, but a different one may apply elsewhere. It is too early to say whether neighbourhood policing is specifically responsible for falling crime, but we have had neighbourhood policing teams for more than a year in Staffordshire and there have been reductions in acquisitive crime, violent crime and antisocial behaviour. Details from the police in my constituency for the period from April 2006 to February 2007 and the equivalent 11-month period for 2007 to 2008 show that total crime has fallen by more than 14 per cent. The figure for criminal damage cases in the earlier period is 22,897 crimes, but it is 18,842 in the later period, which is a fall of more than the average—by more than 17 per cent. For antisocial behaviour incidents, only some of which will be crimes, the police gave me a figure of 58,195 reported incidents in the earlier period, with 56,897 in the later period, which is a fall of more than 2 per cent. I frequently hear from constituents that they want to see police patrols on their streets, and they are increasingly seeing those patrols. They can often recognise the individual officers as their regular police officers, and I know that they are engaging with their local police teams to tackle local problems. Back in 1997, constituents' concerns in Staffordshire and elsewhere in the country would have been about high levels of burglary and theft of and from motor vehicles. Nationally, we have made vast improvements in reducing such crimes. However, on the whole, people feel no safer despite those achievements. The complaint that I hear more often than any other is that antisocial behaviour is ruining people's daily lives. I also hear of older residents worrying about gatherings of young people, whether or not there is any overt sign of unlawful or unruly behaviour. In cases of antisocial behaviour and intergenerational mistrust, neighbourhood policing is ideally placed to intervene and be part of the solution. Close working with the public, effective partnerships with councils, social landlords and others, and decisive action taken together can offer communities a successful end to problems of antisocial behaviour. It would be wrong, however, to label neighbourhood policing as narrowly focused. It offers visible reassurance to communities and promises speedier responses to local matters. Trusted local police teams pick up intelligence from residents that contributes to the more effective operation of intelligence-led policing more generally. Further, the evidence, which admittedly is early, shows that neighbourhood policing contributes to crime reduction across a broad range of offences. It also offers a better quality of police service to the public. In Staffordshire, every victim of criminal damage or antisocial behaviour has contact with their local PCSO. The new chief constable, Chris Sims, intends to take the emphasis on quality of service much further still. In taking up Sir Ronnie's recommendations on reducing the bureaucratic burden on police officers, Chris Sims and his police force are at the forefront with a number of initiatives, including reducing the amount of information routinely recorded for many crimes while retaining extensive recording for serious crimes. Staffordshire police is one of four police services trialling a new streamlined crime recording process. The adoption of standardised forms based on minimum appropriate reporting requirements, as recommended in Sir Ronnie's report, has also reduced the size of many forms by half. The Staffordshire police force has offered to pilot the implementation of mobile data technology across the entire front line. The chief constable has the backing of officers and police staff for his bold offer to the Staffordshire public to home in on quality of policing even where it conflicts with centralised targets based on quantity. I know that that is what local communities want. I can give a recent example from a public meeting that I convened of all the relevant agencies last Friday in the village of Wheaton Aston. At the end of the meeting, the chair of the local parish council said to me, ““David, will you tell Parliament that we want to see more police officers on the beat in our village?”” I said, ““Yes, I'll do it next Wednesday morning,”” which was very impressive for the audience to hear. I suggest that if we follow the line of Sir Ronnie's recommendations and the offer being made by Staffordshire police and their chief constable, we can free up more resources so that more police officers are seen more of the time in communities such as Wheaton Aston. The prize that many judge to be worth pursuing, myself included, is more time for police officers to spend on front-line policing. The commitment made to communities in Staffordshire about patrols and responses to some crimes, thanks to successful neighbourhood policing, can be amplified and extended to a wider range of crimes and situations. The Prime Minister visited Staffordshire police on 3 February. He listened attentively as police officers and PCSOs spoke of the work that they are doing to cut the bureaucracy faced by front-line officers.