What is a neighbourhood?
Many people are familiar with police ‘beats’. Over time, areas can change, as do the needs of the communities living in those areas.
With the introduction of Safer Neighbourhoods, existing beats are being looked at to see if the boundaries are in the right places. This process of mapping neighbourhoods of a geographical size and character which best serves the needs of communities is being done in consultation with local authorities, partners and citizens.
Hampshire and the Isle of Wight contains a mixture of urban and rural communities, so not all neighbourhoods will be the same size or type. Once neighbourhood boundaries are defined, Safer neighbourhoods teams of an appropriate size and composition can be allocated to take responsibility for that geographic area and be accountable to the communities in that neighbourhood.
Examples of Safer Neighbourhood Teams already working in the Portsmouth area can be seen here.
What is a Safer Neighbourhood Team?
A Safer neighbourhood team will vary in size and composition depending on the needs of that particular neighbourhood. Safer neighbourhood teams can contain police officers, police community support officers (PCSOs) special constables, community volunteers and may also include staff from partner agencies and voluntary bodies like housing associations, youth workers and drug workers.
PCSOs are now being recruited across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight to help provide a visible and reassuring presence in communities. Visit these pages to find out more about PCSOs, or visit our recruitment pages to apply to be a PCSO.
Is Safer Neighbourhoods just about Safer Neighbourhood Teams?
No. Everyone who works for Hampshire Constabulary, our partner agencies and the voluntary sector have a part to play, together with communities themselves, in creating neighbourhoods that are safe and feel safe.
At Hampshire Constabulary, Safer Neighbourhoods involves choices for our police officers – they need to decide whether they wish to be part of a Targeted Patrol Team (TPT), whose main roles are to respond to calls for help and to carry out patrols in response to local issue, or a Safer Neighbourhoods Team who work on more long term community issues.
For example, if there was a group of young people in the act of carrying out criminal damage in your local park, the TPT would respond and deal with the immediate issue of identifying the people responsible and taking action. However, if this was part of a long running problem, the Safer Neighbourhood Team would become involved with the local community to find ways to stop the damage reoccurring, perhaps by working with youth workers to find more positive activities for the young people in the area, working with the local authority to provide better lighting and security in the park or by helping to educate parents about knowing where their children are and what they are doing.
Both TPT and the Safer Neighbourhood Teams are equally important to the success of making your communities safer, along with other functions and departments such as CID, intelligence analysts and Station Enquiry Officers who are your first point of contact when you visit a police station.
