New policing model: ‘Officers are going to be more visible’

5 April 2023

Jason Dooley.

West Midlands Police Federation said it was fully behind the new policing model introduced across the Force this week.

The changes include a major overhaul of neighbourhood policing with local commanders being given better resources to make officers more visible in their communities.

Jason Dooley, the branch’s full-time lead on the Force’s ongoing change programme, said members welcomed the return to a well-established and successful system of policing.

“Back in 2012 there were massive changes because of cuts to the policing budget which essentially meant introducing a model that was cheaper to run,” he said.

“This created separate centralised hubs for investigation, neighbourhood policing and response but over 13 years it has led to officers becoming deskilled and neighbourhood teams getting smaller and smaller. 

“Public trust and confidence in the service has been damaged as a result and we need to try to win that back.”

Jason said the improved relations between the police and the communities they serve helped reduce crime and antisocial behaviour.

He said: “The new Chief Constable Craig Guildford is now implementing a policing model which is not so much re-inventing the wheel but returning to a long-established, tried and tested method of policing which, frankly, we should never have moved away from in the first place.

“We are going to be more visible, we are going to be engaging more with the public and we are going to start talking with our partners again. It will be much better for the public.

“We are all behind this. I’m sure there are going to be a few bumps along the way but things had to change. We have to change to get better.”

Under the new policing model, each of the Force’s seven areas will be led by its own chief superintendent commander, with response and investigation teams based at the same local hubs as neighbourhood officers.

The Force said the new policing model was designed to increase neighbourhood presence to really understand local issues and work with communities to tackle these.

Response officers will be more community based while local investigation teams have been told to focus on areas such as burglary, robbery, vehicle crime and domestic abuse to deliver better outcomes.

Mr Guildford said: “When I joined West Midlands Police in December last year I said I wanted us to be recognised as a police service that is big enough to cope with everything that is asked of us, whilst showing we are small enough to care about the things that really matter to our communities.  

“The new local policing model will help us to get better at solving local issues and preventing and solving crime by working in partnership with communities to deliver justice and keep people safe across the West Midlands.”