Safer Streets
Milestone: Putting police back on the beat
The starting point
Confidence in policing has declined in recent years. Community policing has been diminished, with neighbourhood officers pulled off the beat to plug shortages elsewhere, weakening connections with communities they serve.
Since 2010, the proportion of people who see a police foot patrol more than once per week has more than halved, and the number of Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) has halved.
Trust in the police has been undermined by cases of appalling misconduct and criminality by some officers. Powers to combat antisocial behaviour and shoplifting have been weakened, leaving our town centres exposed.
Businesses in our high streets need crime down too. Our justice system has been allowed to grind to a halt. Meanwhile, violent crime is too high: with over 50,000 instances of knife crime in the year to June 2024.
Violence Against Women and Girls continues to plague society, with 1.1 million people experiencing sexual assault in the past 12 months, 2.2 million people experiencing domestic abuse, and 1.5 million people experiencing stalking. Working with the police, we will turn this around.
Our long-term mission
The safer streets mission aims to reduce serious harm and increase public confidence in policing and in the criminal justice system.
Integral to the safer streets mission is our ambition to halve knife crime and halve Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) within a decade.
We are already taking determined action to overhaul the policing response to domestic abuse and introducing stronger measures to tackle stalking and spiking.
On knife crime, we are banning lethal weapons and working to ensure dangerous blades do not end up in the wrong hands. However, we know that reliable and effective local policing is the bedrock for the safer streets mission to succeed.
That is why we will deliver the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee and put 13,000 additional police officers, PCSOs and special constables into neighbourhood policing roles. This will ensure that the police are visible in every community, deterring and preventing crime as well as responding to emergencies.
I believe in the British policing model. I believe in the men and women who work day and night in our police forces to protect the public.
The Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP, Secretary of State for the Home Department
We cannot achieve this mission through further investment alone. We cannot spend our way to improved policing and safer neighbourhoods. Therefore, the safer streets mission will include a programme of police reform – to raise standards, harness technology, increase efficiency and improve accountability.
This will be important to deliver on the ambition to halve VAWG and knife crime, as well as drive up confidence in the police.
Our milestone
Police must be visible and responsive to the communities they serve.
Our milestone over this Parliament is to put police back on the beat in communities, placing 13,000 additional police officers, PCSOs and special constables into neighbourhood policing roles. Each neighbourhood will have a named, contactable officer dealing with local issues.
We will know we have delivered this when we have 13,000 additional police officers, PCSOs and special constables in dedicated neighbourhood policing roles – demonstrably spending time on visible patrol and not taken off the beat to plug shortages elsewhere.
How will we achieve this milestone?
We will deliver our first step to tackle anti-social behaviour with an improved neighbourhood policing response. Anti-social behaviour is a blight on local areas and, if left unchecked, we know it can escalate into more serious offending.
The presence of neighbourhood officers will deter and drive down incidents of anti-social behaviour, and these officers will be equipped with the power to issue Respect Orders to ban persistent offenders from town centres.
Over the course of this Parliament we will transform neighbourhood policing. The Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee will ensure:
- Police back on the beat. A neighbourhood policing team in every local area, carrying out intelligence-led and visible patrols, including in town centres and on high streets. We will hold forces to account for ensuring neighbourhood policing teams are protected, so they remain focused on serving communities.
- Community led policing. A named, contactable officer for every neighbourhood, responsive to local problems. Residents and local businesses will be able to have their say on the police’s priorities for their area.
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Clear performance standards and professional excellence. We will establish a new Police and Crime Performance Unit in the Home Office – which will use high-quality data to spot trends, and drive-up performance standards, ending the current inconsistency across 43 force areas.
This new unit will agree a single performance framework for policing, including minimum standards on neighbourhood policing, providing an important source of accountability for communities. - A new neighbourhood policing career pathway. New training for officers and standards for professional excellence will ensure neighbourhood policing is developed as a specialist policing capability.
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A crackdown on anti-social behaviour. Neighbourhood policing teams will have tougher powers, and supported by other agencies, tackle persistent anti-social behaviour.
This includes piloting the new Respect Order to enable swift enforcement against prolific offenders, and a dedicated lead officer in every force working with communities to develop a local anti-social behaviour action plan. - Safer town centres. Neighbourhood policing teams will crack down on shop theft, street theft and assaults against retail workers, so local people can take back their streets from thugs and thieves.