New officers join police force in Peterborough

Peterborough Telegraph

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00:00Yeah, I mean, Peterborough is, as with any city and any community, is central to what we do here.

00:05We have seen challenges within Peterborough, there's no getting away from that.

00:09But I have to pay tribute to my neighbourhood teams, and indeed all officers who police this city,

00:14is that we have reduced crime. We have increased our trust and confidence here within the city.

00:19And what this initiative does is allows me, as a Chief Constable, to invest in our community officers,

00:24into our neighbourhood policing, and actually have them dedicated to walking the streets of the city

00:31and the outskirts of the city, so that it actually enhances our community involvement.

00:36And one of the issues you'll hear a lot about, people feeling safe in the city centre,

00:39is that going to be a priority for these new officers?

00:42Yeah, our fundamental role of policing is to keep communities safe.

00:46That's our mantra within Cambridgeshire Constabulary.

00:49As I've said, crime has reduced, trust and confidence has increased,

00:52visibility has increased, but we can't be complacent.

00:56And these resources do allow us to put extra resources, extra visibility,

01:00and actually tackle the issues that really matter to our communities here within this county.

01:05Well, isn't it brilliant seeing the launch of the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee,

01:10the whole of Cambridgeshire, happening here in Peterborough?

01:14Too often we end up bottom of the queue, today we're top of it.

01:16What it means is that with the extra £2 million the government's providing to Cambridgeshire,

01:21we're getting a down payment of 10 new officers for the city centre in the east of the city.

01:26That's not enough. I'm going to keep fighting to get more officers for the whole of the city,

01:30but it's really brilliant today to see different businesses, the council, the wardens,

01:35but also the chief constable come together with officers to launch this initiative here in Peterborough.

01:39So you must, being the MP, you must speak to a lot of residents here,

01:42a lot of concerns about the police and what they want to see from the police.

01:45So what's some of the crimes that have been reported to you and how do you hope the police can go about tacking it now with this name?

01:51I don't think anyone will be surprised to hear there are a few issues in the city centre.

01:55I think people have been particularly concerned around shoplifting, about some of the aggressive begging,

01:59about some of the, what can seem like very low-level crime, some of the aggressive behaviour and street drinking.

02:05But we also know there can be more serious crimes happening in the city centre,

02:08whether it's smashing into Barclays or whether it's some other things.

02:11And to me, the really important thing about these new offices are they're not going to be sat in their cars,

02:16whizzing around, answering 999 calls.

02:18They're going to be bobbies on the beach, getting to know the local community and local businesses,

02:22and we're going to see them every day around Peterborough, city centre, but some of those other estates as well.

02:27And I guess the safer people feel being in the city centre, the safer businesses feel about retail crime has been in action,

02:32the more likely people are going to come to the city centre, the more likely businesses are going to open.

02:36Absolutely. We always said this was about making sure the glass is half full.

02:39We've got the down payment of the new officers.

02:42I'm going to keep working alongside businesses to get us even more.

02:45But it isn't brilliant. We always say that politicians talk.

02:49Today we've delivered. The money's come from government.

02:52The chief constables work with the council and others,

02:54and we've started to see the new officers arriving on our streets for patrolling in Peterborough.

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