Suffolk to see new policing model shake-up

An overhaul of community policing in Suffolk will lead to smaller teams but a more targeted approach, an inspector has said.

The new model for Suffolk Police, which will be implemented from December 4, will mean that community policing will be broken into thee sections – the Community Policing Teams, Response Investigation Teams and County Partnership and Prevention Hub.

The Safer Neighbourhood Team will become the Community Policing Team and focus on problem solving with partners such as the council to prevent crimes from happening.

The Community Policing Team will be smaller in size than the current Safer Neighbourhood Team, but there will now be a more streamlined approach, allowing the officers to focus on tackling issues affecting communities like spates of burglaries, retail theft, anti-social behaviour and neighbourhood disputes.

The overall number of police officers will remain the same but will be redistributed across different teams.

Inspector Andy Beeby, of the Safer Neighbourhood Team Bury St Edmunds, said: “The teams will shrink but they will have a more focused priority on community policing.”

He added that community officers would have more time to tackle community issues and identify trends alongside partners as certain investigations would be passed over to another team.

Some officers from the Safer Neighbourhood Team would be moved over to the Response Investigations Team which would be responsible for emergency and non-emergency calls, but they would also tackle high-volume crime investigations such as low level assaults, public order, thefts and low-level burglary.

The County Partnership and Prevention Hub will co-ordinate the work between police and partners across Suffolk. Its responsibility includes anti-social behaviour, hate crime, and issues with children and young people, along with neighbourhood policing.

In total across the four areas Bury St Edmunds is broken down into there will be seven community police officers (CPOs).

The Response Investigation Team for the West area, which covers Bury, Forest Heath (which includes Newmarket, Lakenheath and Mildenhall), Sudbury, Haverhill and Stowmarket, will consist of five inspectors, 25 sergeants and 155 police constables.

For more information about Suffolk Police visit the website.