New Peterborough police officers start shifts

The first 30 of 50 new neighbourhood police officers, who will be based across Cambridgeshire, including in Peterborough, have begun settling into their posts with the remaining being filled in January 2020.

Chief Constable Nick Dean said: “Neighbourhood policing is at the heart of everything we do and building trust and confidence with our communities is vital in helping us to prevent crime and bring offenders to justice.

“I was determined to increase our neighbourhood policing offer here in Cambridgeshire and these officers will do exactly that.”

The officers have been placed in East Cambs, St Ives, Huntingdon, South Cambs, Cambridge, Peterborough, Wisbech and March.

In addition, under the neighbourhood policing structure, the forces Impact Teams, Community Action Teams and Public Protection Teams, who tackle local issues, will also benefit from the increase.

Mr Dean added: “We want to ensure our neighbourhood teams are accessible to, responsible for and accountable to their communities. They will be working to build trust, understand community needs and work collaboratively with partners, the public and communities to solve local problems, all the while being supported by a network of specialist policing services.”

Last week the Government launched a campaign to recruit 20,000 new police officers. The ‘Be a force for all’ campaign follows the Prime Minister’s commitment to increase police numbers over the next three years.

Mr Dean said: “Any further increase will support our ability to prevent and detect crime, and importantly keep our communities safe. We await further details on what exactly this means for Cambridgeshire in terms of resources.”