I can't help but think that this would just be a waste of police time. We pay the police to do this for us. To know and understand the problems in a community and to deal with it. It may well sound good to say:
Every community of the country is going to have neighbourhood policing with police to call upon - with their mobile phone number available - to be able to call them up and have local meetings to discuss the local issues you're concerned about...
That will lead to neighbourhood contracts, where local residents and police come together to decide 'here are the priorities, this is what we've got to do, this is how we can make it a safer place'.
But in reality, it's a load of bollocks.That will lead to neighbourhood contracts, where local residents and police come together to decide 'here are the priorities, this is what we've got to do, this is how we can make it a safer place'.
The police already know - or damn well should know - what the crime problems are in any given area. Giving out mobile numbers of police officers won't help anything, except distract them from their actual job of dealing with crime even more than the current target-focused policing that this government has introduced. It is just a waste of police time.
Nevertheless, a greater level of contact between local police forces and local communities is desirable - but on a more manageable and less of a free-for-all basis. Such as, maybe, monthly meetings when residents can give their thoughts on crime issues to a local police force?
But one thing which would certainly enable more police to be communicating with local residents would be through reducing the ridiculous number of targets that they are expected to meet and the amount of paperwork that they are required to fill out foe every little thing, thus enabling them to actually patrol the streets in the way that we expect them to and come in to contact with the community that way.
As David Davis said: "The public want [the police] on the streets, not on the phone."
