Your Police Officer

The project is a working method that brings the local police closer to the local community and vice-versa. The intention is to make the local police more visible and accessible to citizens, trades-people and local partners such as the local authority and housing companies.

In practice it works by having the individual local police officers patrol a relatively limited geographic area. Their job is to create, expand and take part in all relevant local networks. The aim is to increase community safety by enabling people to observe a local police officer at work, a police officer they know and who knows them.

Familiarity between people creates a basis for trust and a desire to become part of the confidence-building interaction vital to creating security and safety in the areas where people live and move. The police cannot do their work without the help of local citizens, and local citizens cannot get on with their work without the police. Consequently, networks – both formal and informal – are an important project element: formal meetings in tenants’ associations, with trades-people and in clubs, and informal talks with people on the street.

The ‘Your Police Officer’ approach should offer advice and guidance for dealing with the numerous ordinary conflicts that must be stopped before they start and should not result in a formal police statement.

The project started in 2009 and is still running.
Last review: September 2017.