Cheshire Police and Crime Commissioner Dan Price (Lab) was responding to a question from Cllr Russell Chadwick (CEC, Lab) about why there weren’t so many ‘bobbies on the beat’ as there used to be. He explained with criminals turning to the internet to defraud people and run porn rings, policing had to change as well.
Crimes are less visible, so policing is less visible as well
Mr Price told the meeting of the Cheshire police and crime panel:
A phenomenal amount of police time is spent on things that are not as visible, but are absolutely horrendous and so, as a consequence, there’s a lot of officers in other areas.
One area I would say, and I’ve made reference to in the past, is the online child abuse investigation team.
That is a significant operation in Cheshire and is increasing, but officers walking around neighbourhoods are not going to intervene in that type of crime.
Another area which I think we’re all receiving more and more interactions on via phone calls from people who are attempting fraud and trying to deceive people.
Again, there’s no amount of neighbourhood policing that would intervene in that sort of crime.
Policing has to respond to the type of crimes being committed
Mr Price said he was aware of concerns raised about neighbourhood policing.
But I think the types of crime have changed very significantly, and policing has got to respond to that, and has got to pivot its resources accordingly.
And that’s one of the reasons why a huge amount of resources go into things that aren’t as obvious and visible as neighbourhood policing, but they are doing incredible work.
By Local Democracy Reporter Belinda Ryan.
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