Calling for more bobbies on the beat has been the mantra to help crack crime and extinguish antisocial behaviour for years.
But a top policeman says the belief is a myth and that deploying officers in such a way would not necessarily impact on crime.
And he believes even if numbers of PCs pounding the beat shot up, the chances are we wouldn’t even notice.
Chief Inspector Martin Wilson is the district commander for Tunbridge Wells.
He told us: “People really like to see a police officer because they feel safer and more secure seeing someone in a uniform.
“And when they are asked, the usual response is that they want to see more police on the street.
“But often the reality is that residents are not in a position to see them even if they are there and in Tunbridge Wells a massive proportion of people commute to London.”
Instead, he insists patrols more strategically deployed and using all the latest crime busting statistics to pinpoint where they can make a real difference, is a better use of funds and personnel. In particular he points to a ‘huge’ amount of police work which goes on behind the scenes which has a big impact on keeping our streets safe.
He uses as an example of strategic deployment, having high visibility, uniform officers patrolling certain pubs on weekends or going to areas where there are problems with young people making a lot of noise.
However, they cannot deal so well with crimes like burglary, he said, which needs a different kind of policing to tackle.
Reassuringly, across the Tunbridge Wells borough, Ch Insp Wilson says on average there is just one reported burglary every 24-hours. Clearly, however, the chances of deploying officers to be in the right place at the right time are small.
“Tackling some crime types require other sorts of policing,” he explains. “Gathering intelligence, forensics, speaking to other criminal networks, studying crime patterns, automatic number plate recognition to locate where individuals are.”
He said the number of officers on the streets of Tunbridge Wells varies hugely –- from low levels on weekday mornings, to more than tripling in order to handle revellers descending on the town on Friday and Saturday nights.
“Yes, having bobbies on the beat is a good thing but they are only part of the bigger picture,” Ch Insp Wilson said. “It would be detrimental if we only had Bobbies out on the beat at the expense of other policing methods.”
Ch Insp Wilson added: “It has its use and visibility is really important to Kent Police. It is a great policing tool having visibility but it is not the answer to everything.
“It is useful for people to know that there is a great deal of unseen police work that goes on that is of great significance to how we tackle crime.”
POSTED: 01/11/2009 16:00:00
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