Police earn praise for local service (From Witney Gazette)

Police earn praise for local service

9:00am Thursday 9th November 2006 in Witney

THAMES Valley Police has been named as one of the best forces in the country for using neighbourhood policing to respond to communities' concerns.

A Government performance report awarded the force - which covers Oxfordshire - an "excellent" rating for the confidence it instilled in the public and its work in tackling local priorities.

As part of its shift to neighbourhood policing Thames Valley plans to introduce local teams to a further 100 areas by next March and recruit more community support officers to patrol the streets and focus on nuisance behaviour.

Neighbourhood Action Groups, made up of police and councillors, are already up and running across Oxfordshire, in areas of the city as well as towns.

The groups aim to respond to residents' concerns by prioritising issues raised by members of the public - such as drug dealing or anti-social behaviour.

The force also received "good" ratings for detecting crime and bringing criminals to justice and for its results in promoting road traffic safety and dealing with anti-social behaviour.

But its efforts at reducing crime were rewarded with a lesser rating of "fair".

The Police Performance Assessments 2005/6 report showed Thames Valley had improved in every major performance category apart from crime reduction, where progress was considered "stable".

But it found the force wanting when it came to the recruitment of minority ethnic officers.

It gave police managers a "poor" rating within the overall "good rating" of resource use for presiding over a force in which just 3.9 per cent of officers were from an ethnic minority compared with 7.6 per cent of the area's population.

The figure represented a deterioration from the previous year, 2004/5, when the proportion of officers from an ethnic minority was four per cent.

A national analysis of the performance assessments gave Thames Valley an overall score of 13 points - and a top-half position in a league of England and Wales's 43 forces.

The best score was 18 points, recorded by Staffordshire, and the worst just three points, awarded to both Humberside and Northamptonshire forces.

Thames Valley Police attributed its good record for promoting safety to its Safer Streets campaign, which brought together experts from different organisations to reduce violent and alcohol-related crime.

Sara Thornton, the force's acting chief constable, said: "Thames Valley Police is committed to delivering high quality and value for money services to the communities we serve.

"The 'excellent' grading for local policing is therefore very encouraging and, while the roll-out of neighbourhood policing is still in its early stages, it is a sign that we are moving in the right direction.

"There is, of course, always room for improvement and we will strive to maintain excellence where it exists and do better where we know we must."