More police officers confirmed to join neighbourhood teams

An extra 19 neighbourhood police officers will be going on the beat in communities across County Durham and Darlington.

The extra officers, who will be deployed over the coming year, will be joined on the frontline by a cohort of 14 new PCSOs, who began training last month.

Chief Constable Rachel Bacon announced the commitment at the start of Neighbourhood Policing Week as she joined a neighbourhood team on patrol, in Horden which has seen significant falls in crime and antisocial behaviour over the last year following co-ordinated activity by police and partner agencies.

Over the last year, during the first phase of the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, Durham Constabulary put an extra 26 officers into our neighbourhood teams and made sure every single member of the public had a named officer they could contact directly about crime and antisocial behaviour where they live.

Reported crime is down across the force area while, under Operation Pave, officers carried out an extra 14,000 hours of high-visibility patrols targeting town centre hot spots across County Durham and Darlington.

This year, the growth in neighbourhood teams will continue with the extra 19 officers and 14 PCSOs expected to be on patrol across the force by the end of the financial year.

Chief Constable Bacon said: “Visible policing makes a real difference to whether people feel safe where they live.

“These extra officers are already making a difference and we’re seeing reported crime fall across the force and are doing an amazing job in places like Horden: arresting people bringing offenders to justice and making people feel safer in their own home.

“There is more to do, but we’re going in the right direction.

“Confidence in policing is built on knowing your own local officers, knowing they are looking out for you and knowing you can feel safe in your own home."

In Horden, over the last 12 months of Op Pave there was a 35% fall in reported ASB, while concerted work with partner agencies in the village has seen recorded crime reduced by 10% over the last three years.

Durham Constabulary is also taking steps to improve officers’ technological capacity across the force area: introducing new digital equipment to track patrol patterns and officer visibility.