Neighbourhood Policing Strategy 2024 - 2027

Foreword

At the heart of our policing philosophy is the need to build stronger relationships with communities across Northamptonshire. Neighbourhood policing is the foundation to this approach.

Through our neighbourhood policing teams, we aim to deliver a truly local policing service, where officers are a visible, accessible and trusted presence within their communities.

Our neighbourhood teams will be connected to and care about the communities they serve, and deliver a bespoke and localised response to help build safer, stronger communities.

This strategy sets out our commitment to deliver prevention focused, proactive local policing, where our neighbourhood teams are committed to dealing with the issues that matter most to local people through a collaborative approach.

They will work with partner agencies and the local community to identify issues early, and proactively prevent offending by addressing root causes and seeking long-term, sustainable solutions.

We will use the skills of those who work in policing and other public services to generate a dynamic that places people and problem solving at the very centre of our joint mission: to create a safer Northamptonshire.

Adam Ward, Assistant Chief Constable - Local Policing

Executive Summary

In 2020, Northamptonshire Police made a commitment to significantly enhance its neighbourhood policing approach. This included more than doubling the number of police officers to ensure neighbourhood policing remained the cornerstone of policing in the county.

Since then, neighbourhood police officer numbers have increased from 50 in 2020 to almost 150 in 2024. PCSO numbers are also being maintained, with additional powers available to enhance their activities.

This strategy sets out our approach for the next three years. We will invest to further increase neighbourhood resources and we will ensure even greater focus on a proactive and preventative way of working.

Our neighbourhood teams will work together with our partners and the community to reduce and prevent crime and improve the lives of the communities we serve, in line with the Force's strategic ambition and our neighbourhood policing blueprint.

Force Strategic Ambition

• Quality service
• Effective partnerships
• Prevention and intervention
• Releasing capacity

Our commitment

Neighbourhood Policing teams will be committed to providing the best quality of victim service and preventing harm. Our neighbourhood officers will be accessible and contactable and will provide service and assistance that inspires confidence and builds longer-term sustainable trust and confidence in our approach.

We will focus on community engagement, prevention and intervention, problem solving and customer satisfaction. Neighbourhood policing resources will be aligned to each Local Area Partnership (LAP) and will deal with local neighbourhood crime and attend key community events and meetings.

Neighbourhood resources will have a defined purpose when undertaking all activities, and will assess the value of each activity. Our staff will build trust and confidence in communities through sustained proactive and preventative partnership approaches to reduce repeat demand, with a strong commitment to local issues. This will include identifying opportunities to reduce repeat victimisation and vulnerability.

This work will be supported through additional partnership schemes, including Operation Revive, community weeks of action and Citizens in Policing (CiP) targeted patrols, and will provide the foundation for future programmes and relationships.

Governance

This strategy is aligned to the College of Policing's 'three pillars' that will help police to understand communities, and build trust and success:

1. Engaging communities
2. Problem solving and crime prevention
3. Targeting activity

This will be governed through the Neighbourhood Policing Board and progress will be tracked through the national performance framework for neighbourhood policing. There will be two cross-cutting themes running through the three pillars:

1. Promoting the right culture and developing staff
2. Building analytical capability

Engaging Communities

Having a clear focus and purpose to all engagement activity undertaken locally is essential and will ensure police officers and staff remain accessible to all. Effective two-way communication and innovative ways to access a cross-section of society inspires public confidence, increases satisfaction in the service we offer and promotes procedural justice.

Targeted engagement activity with a focus on local communities is a core part of our legitimacy. How we action intelligence following engagement ensures our communities across Northamptonshire are safer and feel better protected. Engagement priorities are focused on, but not limited to, mass engagement opportunities, engagement with diverse communities and working with community and partner leaders.

• Neighbourhood officers (constables, PCSOs, staff and volunteers) will be responsible for a policing beat and to the communities they serve. They will be a stakeholder in Local Area Partnerships (LAPs) to deliver services for a specific community. They will have a targeted visible presence in neighbourhoods
• There will be a clearly defined and transparent purpose for engagement activities, with activity reviewed and audited through consistent collection methods and stored in the Force's data hub Qlik
• Engagement will be tailored to the needs and preferences of different communities, with Community Engagement Officers (CEOs) dedicated to growing relationships with diverse communities, and Hate Crime Officers (HCO) that ensure enhanced, effective and coordinated services to the victims of hate crime
• There will be meaningful consultation with communities, key community influencers and community scrutiny groups, giving a voice to all and enabling people to have their say about how their communities are policed. This includes Independent Advisory Groups (IAGs), Key Individual Networks (KINs), and parishes linked through the Police Liaison Representative scheme (PLR)
• Through consultation, we will understand local priorities and publish the activities we have undertaken directly as a result of public feedback. We will use these priorities to determine future engagement and problem-solving activity
• We will work in an agile manner and publish our attendance at formal and informal events within communities. This would include local planned activities, beat bus attendance and multi-agency weeks of action. This will enable the police to develop a better understanding of communities and their needs, risks and threats
• We will be efficient in our approach to engagement and avoid duplication by working with partners and agreeing tasks and planned activity
• We will continue to develop and expand  the reach of our engagement through social media platforms and community messaging services, including Northamptonshire Talking. This system includes surveying tools, multilingual updates and a facility to target messaging for specific community groups or in bespoke localities. It allows us to target diverse communities so we can better understand how to support them
• We will make our communities aware of information about local crime and policing issues in a number of ways, including community meetings, informal engagement sessions, Northamptonshire Talking, the PLR scheme and publication on Force platforms
• We will support Citizens in Policing schemes that encourage engagement and visibility, supporting communities to be more active in the policing of their local areas. Street Watch, Speed Watch and Neighbourhood Watch will all have dedicated support mechanisms that assist their community activity. This will increase local capacity by increasing the willingness of communities to help the police, be involved and take greater ownership of problems
• We will develop and support community resources, such as neighbourhood beat buses, the SNO van, Speed Watch, Pub Watch and other initiatives, to reduce demand and provide sustainable resources for each community
• We will work as a partnership to deliver community weeks of action in targeted localities and in line with community feedback and local priorities
• Engagement activity will be tasked through statutory and third sector partnership meetings such as Community 1, Local Area Partnerships, Hate and Anti-Social Behaviour Action Groups (HASBAGS) in line with locally identified issues
• Neighbourhood officers will engage with their communities proactively, both physically and through virtual platforms, to provide ongoing two-way dialogue.
• We will treat people fairly with dignity and respect, being always open and honest.

Problem Solving and Crime Prevention

Neighbourhood staff will be at the heart of 'community action', involving stakeholders, community groups, local authorities, parish councils, partnership agencies and Citizens in Policing in each stage of the problem-solving process.

We aspire to being a Force where problem-solving is at the forefront of our policing approach. Good consultation with the public and our partners will be key to understand the root cause of problems, and we will provide support at all levels of the organisation to ensure a structured approach.

• There will be a focus on proactive prevention, working with partners to launch capable guardianship schemes, and hotspot patrols to deter and reduce crime
• Staff will use the structured problem-solving process OSARA (objective, scanning, analysis, response, assessment), together with templates to determine OSARA completion and other problem-solving techniques
• We will assess the impact of responses and share good practice. A problem-solving coordinator will monitor standards and create processes to ensure corporate memory and sharing
• There will be learning from 'what works' internally and externally, talking and using an evidence-based approach and adopting good practice tailored to local context
• Police tasking meetings will adopt a problem-solving approach, inviting input from internal stakeholders to ensure a joint approach to the problem, and to assign the right resources to deal with the issue
• We will empower neighbourhoods and communities to create self-sustaining solutions, listening to their concerns and supporting crime prevention initiatives to address long-term issues
• We will use partnership Observatory data to focus on proactive prevention activity with vulnerable families, tasking activity through established partnership groups
• Additional capabilities and powers for PCSOs will be assigned to assist in prevention and intervention and diversionary programmes to reduce long term demand
• Communities will have access to more partnership programmes and rural areas more access to PCSOs and rural crime teams
• We will work with the wider Violence Reduction Partnership, identifying
  vulnerable young people and helping to coordinate a true partnership approach to reducing and preventing adverse childhood experiences
• We will focus on reducing future crime by expanding our use of civil powers, using dedicated staff to identify opportunities and making use of civil legislation to prevent reoffending
• There will be continued training for staff to support them in problem-solving activity
• Staff will be able to access data through Force and partnership analytical products and carry out their own analysis through the Force’s data hub Qlik, with training provided so they understand the available systems
• Staff will have access to a skilled Local Policing Area analyst to assist with further information as required; they will share data through partners, so we better understand problems jointly
• There will be increased usage of Citizens in Policing programmes to enable communities to be intrinsically involved in community safety problem-solving initiatives. Special constables will be further integrated into neighbourhood policing, with a new rank structure and performance framework. We will work to redefine volunteer roles and expand opportunities
• We will enhance longevity of solutions to community problems by engaging with young people at an early stage to prevent problems re-occurring in the future. This will include school communities, referrals to turnaround projects and the Youth Violence Intervention Unit (YVIU).

Targeting Activity

Northamptonshire is made up of urban and rural areas, each with different needs and socio-economic issues. Communities suffer from pre-cursor crime such as anti-social behaviour and criminal damage all the way up to gang and organised crime group (OCG) related crimes. We will provide a service to all communities but target additional resources into high harm areas and those areas of vulnerability and social deprivation that suffer from crime.

We will use partnership and police data to identify localities down to Local Super Output area (LSOA) level to focus engagement and joint enforcement activity, using Clear-Hold-Build principles. There will be a focus on early intervention and crime prevention activities in these areas to reduce crime at a local level.

• Officers will be clearly identified and have full accountability for crime and anti-social behaviour within their local area. They will deal with neighbourhood crime on their policing beats and other issues affecting community cohesion. This will enhance victim service and accessibility
• We will work to understand the areas where police resources should be focused. Partnership and police data will be used and refreshed regularly to identify localities for focused activity. We will listen to and take account of public perceptions about crime and fear of crime, identifying and prioritising those people, groups and places with the greatest needs
• Engagement with statutory partners and the third sector will determine local areas of focus, with structures put in place to task activity. These groups will include already established Local Area Partnerships, Community 1, Hate and Anti-Social Behaviour Action Groups and Joint Action Groups. These meetings provide governance over localised partnership problem solving and enable a swift response to critical incidents and emerging risks affecting community cohesion
• All staff will have a clear focus for what they do, to inform resource deployment decisions. Qlik will be used to collate and help review engagement activities and Observatory data will support prevention and early intervention directed activity
• We will develop the success of Operation Revive, a long-term commitment to improve quality of life and reduce serious organised crime in six areas across our county and achieve sustainable harm reduction using Clear-Hold-Build principles. Through Operation Revive, we will continue to work with all key partners and communities to invest in and support long-term prevention programmes. This will involve consultation with communities to understand the root causes of harm, and the assessment of activity outcomes to ensure we are making a positive difference
• We will continually develop community intelligence to support and conduct local policing. Internal tasking processes will be used to assign additional resources to target emerging issues