CHESHIRE police have publicly backed the Government’s National Policing Pledge, which identifies 10 minimum standards for the service across the UK.
And deputy chief constable Graeme Gerrard highlighted the good work the force is already carrying out.
Over the last three years, Cheshire Police Authority has invested a lot of money to provide neighbourhood policing units that have local uniformed officers at the heart of communities.
“Everyone who lives and works in Cheshire, Halton and Warrington will be benefiting from the changes we have made,” said Mr Gerrard.
“Local communities now have local officers in their neighbourhood, patrolling the streets and playing a part in everyday community life, deterring criminals and reducing the number of crimes being committed.
“Crime has fallen throughout the last year across all the different crime types and in addition we are bringing more criminals to court as officers have increased the number of crimes they have detected during the year.”
Mr Gerrard added: “We believe our commitment to neighbourhood policing and the direction we have adopted for the delivery of local policing services is in line with the standards laid out by the Government’s Policing Pledge.
“We have altered the way we deliver policing services, providing neighbourhood policing units to tailor local policing services to the needs of our communities.
“During the last year we have made significant changes to the way in which we keep people informed.
“We have introduced service desks with dedicated staff whose primary role is to contact and update victims concerning their reported crime and to keep in contact with them at regular intervals throughout the course of any investigation.
“And we have just completed a project over the Christmas period that will provide local people with local crime information over the internet which will be updated monthly in line with standards set within the policing pledge.”
This project is the crime rate profiles which are available on the force website at www.cheshire.police.uk.
