A NEW police inspector has declared his desire to make policing as local and as visible as possible – and might even send his officers out on buses.

Inspector Steve Beddows will have responsibility for Blacon, Handbridge, St Mary’s, Curzon Park, Westminster, Boughton Heath, Hoole, Huntington, Lache, Newton, Saughall, Upton and Vicars Cross.

He impressing on his staff of 25 the need to be visible and engage with their communities.

“We are a police service, not a force,” he insists. “We provide a service which has got broad spectrum of demand.

“In Blacon there are lots of law abiding citizens affected by a minority. If we’re engaged with those people they will support us.

“What I want my team to do is to understand local issues. We have to make sure our engagement is very, very local.

“I want my staff to be inventive. I want them to think of more efficient ways of engaging our communities.”

While acknowledging the importance community action meetings have had in setting local forces with clear targets that meet community demands, Insp Beddows wants an even more effective means of addressing local needs.

He added: “While I think community action meetings are important, the natural evolution for me is even more local engagement with more street surgeries.

“We’ve got access to vehicles that will get us closer to communties.

“We could have a trailer on a car so people only have to come 100 yards from their door.”

In Macclesfield, the local forces has taken to the streets on a bus as a portable police surgery with great success and Insp Beddows hints he would be interested in adopting the idea in Chester, or combining with the mobile library service.

“Last week, someone had stolen a briefcase from a car outside a hotel in Huntington. Within 24 hours we had a PCSO liasing with staff at the hotel.

“The most important option is being there where the crime has happened.”

Insp Beddows reasons that while someone may not be motivated to call the police after witnessing a crime, they would mention it if presented with a police officer in person.

“Communities hold lots of intelligence,” he continued.

“I find if you go and ask questions, people are more than happy to tell you intelligence that is critical. Some of the biggest crimes have been detected from the smallest pieces of information.”