Neighbourhood policing is an 'amazing' source of intelligence

25 January 2024

Neighbourhood policing and building relationships in communities is an ‘amazing’ source of intelligence, says a West Midlands Police Federation member.

Sergeant Jase Vlahakis has highlighted the importance of working with communities as part of Neighbourhood Policing Week, this week.

He said that, where possible, neighbourhood officers should be working with their communities as much as possible as they can provide a rich supply of information and intelligence.

Jase, a former neighbourhood sergeant, said: “We’d hold a surgery in a library.

“We’d contact schools and get their permission to take a knife arch in, which are a bit like an airport scanner and buzz if there’s a piece of metal there.

“Neighbourhood Policing Week is a chance to put plans in place - but we should be doing it more often.

"Neighbourhood policing should be about connecting and building.

“Making contact with the public and building those relationships, for example, with schools.

“I allocated schools to my PCs, and their job was to go in, introduce themselves, and to make themselves known that they were available to speak to any pupils who were possibly going off the rails and to deal with crime in the school.

“It really helps with intelligence.

“Schools get to trust you and the children get to trust you. You get information that you wouldn’t normally get off kids.

“They see your face, and you start to build that trust, that you are there as a human being and not as someone in uniform.

“The amount of intelligence you can gain from that is amazing.”

Jase acknowledged it can be difficult for neighbourhood policing teams to spend as much time as they would like in the communities.

He said they often get tasked with dealing with issues that other teams are not able to deal with.

Jase said: “Neighbourhood policing can be like a dumping ground for everything else that no-one can deal with.”

Jase is currently a sergeant on the priority crimes team in Birmingham and said he will always try to involve the expertise of neighbourhood teams when putting together a firearms or a drugs warrants.

“We get them involved and work with them,” he said. They know the area, know what to look for, so I always try to involve them.”