Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 17
17
Not Addressed
Paragraph: 85
Lack of neighbourhood policing capacity damages retail worker confidence and crime prevention efforts.
Recommendation
The lack of capacity in neighbourhood policing teams to build relationships with retailers, identify prolific offenders and respond swiftly to incidents of retail crime has damaged the confidence of retail workers. It has made it harder to maintain close relationships between the police and local high street retailers, or to pursue community relationships, which has had a significant impact on crime prevention work. These teams play a vital role in identifying and addressing the specific challenges facing retailers on their local high street. We believe it is extremely important that neighbourhood policing teams are prioritised for new resource as part of the 20,000 police officer uplift programme. Both Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables should make neighbourhood policing a priority. Chief Constables should examine their current resourcing arrangements and ring-fence a proportion of their additional policing capacity to expand neighbourhood teams.
Government Response Summary
The government highlights its commitment to recruiting 20,000 additional police officers and the funding provided for territorial policing. However, it does not specifically commit to prioritising or ring-fencing these new resources for neighbourhood policing teams, as recommended.
Paragraph Reference:
85
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
The Government is delivering on the people’s priorities by recruiting an additional 20,000 police officers by March 2023. This sends a clear message that we are committed to giving police the resources they need to tackle the scourge of crime. As a result of their hard work and commitment, police forces in England and Wales have recruited 9,814 additional officers and have therefore exceeded the first target of 6,000 additional officers by March 2021. This year (year two of the programme) we are providing £425m to spend on the recruitment of 6,000 additional officers by 2022. Of this, PCCs will receive £415m for territorial policing and Regional Organised Crime Units.