Blog: In recent Command Team restructures across the force, I was lucky to receive a posting to Telford, writes Chief Inspector Andy Udall, the new lead on local policing in the borough.

I formerly worked at both Shrewsbury and Telford as a constable and sergeant, and later, as an inspector and chief inspector. I’ve worked in headquarters posts within the force control room, roads policing and Firearms Incident Command. These roles have provided valuable experience in the command and control of large scale incidents and events.

However, it’s now good to finally have some input into the daily co-ordination and direction of the local policing response to the people of the Telford area – an area in which I have a vested interest as my family and I live locally.

Like many public sector organisations, police forces nationally are approaching a period of change brought about by reductions in funding and the need to work more efficiently and effectively.

West Mercia Police’s delivery of its service is primarily by way of responsive policing – 24/7/365 uniform response, local policing – focused, longer-term problem solving and building community links and relationships, and the Criminal Investigation Department, (CID) – dealing with major, serious and volume crime.

My remit in delivering Local Policing is to concentrate on the identification and reduction of harm within communities. But what is harm exactly?

Telford’s Territorial Policing Unit (TPU) have joined forces with the local council and many other organisations within the area and are focussing on this issue, which includes child protection, anti-social behaviour (ASB), domestic abuse and hate crime.

Community support officers (CSOs) and police officers – using their full range of powers – are seeking to enforce the law in these areas, prevent incidents from occurring and building intelligence and evidence against the perpetrators of such activity.

Additionally, I am directing their efforts at active problem solving, providing reassurance, visibility, communication and community engagement. Clearly, we can’t be everywhere – there simply aren’t enough of us – so I need, with the help of Telford’s community, to target my limited staff where they are needed the most and where they can have the greatest impact and harm reduction. That’s not to say I’ll be looking for quick wins to make us look good, but instead seeking to provide a balanced and proportionate response to issues that can be realistically targeted and the “harm” or “risk of harm” reduced.

Our partner agencies are also providing a vital support link and work with us in longer term problem solving activity.

The recently created Telford and Wrekin Council ASB and Nuisance Reporting Line has seen in excess of 1300 incidents reported by the public over a three-and-a-half month period. Reports ranged from fly tipping to drug taking. The call centre records your complaint and employs the most appropriate resource to deal with it, or, if necessary, passes the information to us, the police, for enforcement action where appropriate.

You can contact the Reporting Line between Monday – Friday 8am to 8pm and Saturdays from 9am to 1pm on 01952 384 384. Outside of these opening hours you can leave a voicemail for non-emergencies, which will be dealt with the next working day. Alternatively, you can e-mail your concern via their website: http://www.telford.gov.uk/asb

Locally, police in Telford also provide a number of communication methods outside of the normal phone call. Within each of the policing sections that make up the Telford TPU, Partners and Communities Together (PACT) teams have been established that meet regularly to discuss issues of local concern, enabling my local teams to target our resources at important issues that you have helped us identify. These are the type of issues that adversely affect your quality of life or expose local people to harm or the risk of harm.

At the following link, you can discover the times/dates of PACT meetings near you and also identify the names, locations and contact details of the Local Policing Team in your area: http://www.westmercia.police.uk/pact/

I’m pleased to the report that the efforts of these teams, our partner agencies and my staff have brought about a significant reduction in ASB and nuisance over the last year.

However, whilst this is encouraging, problems remain evident and our partners and my staff will not be complacent in tackling them. We are all keen to see further reductions across the Telford area but to achieve further reductions we need your help because if you don’t tell us, we don’t always know.

So please, if you can, pick up the phone, e-mail us or visit your local PACT meeting if you’re at risk of harm or have real quality of life issues that you’d like us to deal with…….