THE restructuring of local policing models across Barnsley has been hailed as a step in the right direction by bosses from South Yorkshire Police and Barnsley Council.
Inspector Andrew Norton, who oversees hubs located in the town centre, Goldthorpe, Kendray and Royston, gave an end-of-year review with Paul Brannan, the council’s head of safer communities, to North East Area Council members last Thursday.
The teams - which each have a sergeant, several PCs, up to ten PCSOs and a team of council staff including tasking and enforcement officers - deal with low-level issues such as anti-social behaviour across Barnsley, before cases can be escalated up to case management basis if it’s deemed the problem requires more intervention.
“The benefits of this structure, and having a tiered approach, means the local-based policing teams across Barnsley can focus on street-level issues such as anti-social behaviour which we all know has been a problem this year,” Insp Norton said.
“There are less officers than before but this targeted approach, and having tiers to best cope, has been focused in order to make best use of the resources we do have.
“In the last year we have been able to deal with many cases of anti-social behaviour by issuing things such as closure orders on problem properties, which mean anyone who has no reason to be there could face prosecution. We have seen people taking advantage of vulnerable people in their own homes, so closure orders have helped us a lot.
“Reducing risks boosts the public’s confidence and ultimately cuts the demand on teams.”
The reshuffle of former policing teams was criticised by residents and councillors across the town who claimed reduced coverage led to a spike in crime after bobbies were taken off their usual beats to be based in Wombwell and deployed elsewhere, many in villages they had no knowledge of.
But a U-turn was performed following the backlash and the four hubs began operating in January this year - a move which has since been praised by those who condemned the police for juggling with the tried-and-tested method in a bid to slash £8.1m from its budget.
Paul Brannan said: “We have less resources now but we are working well - it’s very much a collaborative approach as a lot has changed in the last 12 months. We are now better shaped to work more effectively.
“We have moved back to an area-based approach and when South Yorkshire Police made changes which saw officers based at Wombwell, it did have a significant impact.
“We are still in a rebuilding stage but we are learning and certainly moving in the right direction. We don’t always get it right but more positives will be seen in 2018.”
Case management staff, which step in when an issue goes higher than the local policing teams’ remit, could move into the four hubs, while the Chronicle can reveal specialist mental health workers could also follow to provide more support.
“We have also brought in an out-of-hours service,” Paul added. “We analysed the demand and it’s not rocket science to see that there was a requirement for a service out of the usual office hours. That’s available seven days a week.
“We appreciate the issues we do still encounter will not be fixed overnight as there’s an awful lot of demand and expectation, but we are on the right track despite resources shrinking.”
