More than just increasing numbers: rebuilding the connection between police and communities
Catherine Akehurst and Dennis Murray discuss the impact of the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee to strengthen public trust and confidence in policing.
Trust and confidence are fundamental to effective policing, community engagement and legitimacy, and over recent years we have seen a decrease in this nationally.
Many factors play a part in building and maintaining trust and confidence, however we know neighbourhood policing and officers on the street are crucial for us to connect with communities.
Visibility and engagement with communities has always been central to the British policing model and must remain at the heart of what we do.
Through the implementation of its Safer Streets Mission, the Government has made a commitment to support forces in rebuilding neighbourhood policing, with the delivery of its Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee (NPG).
The guarantee, which was announced by the Prime Minister in April, aims to increase public confidence in policing and enhance the capability and capacity of the neighbourhood policing workforce by 13,000 police constables, police community support officers (PCSOs) and special constables to address anti-social behaviour (ASB) and focus on crime prevention.
Delivering the NPG is more than just increasing numbers though; it is about rebuilding the vital connection between the public and the police.
Since the announcement, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) has been working closely with forces to ensure specific commitments set out to be delivered by July have been met and are now being successfully delivered across all forces in England and Wales.
Every community now has named and contactable officers dedicated to addressing local issues, with neighbourhood policing teams spending the majority of their time in communities, providing visible patrols, engaging with residents and businesses, and offering regular opportunities for the public to raise concerns through community meetings.
A further commitment was made to provide a response to neighbourhood queries such as concerns about ASB, or local issues, within 72 hours. Every force now has a dedicated ASB lead to work with communities to develop action plans that tackle concerns seen on streets every day.
These achievements lay the foundation for the next phase of the guarantee, and the progress sets a national minimum standard that communities can expect.
The next focus is to support forces with achieving a further milestone over this Parliament: having an additional 13,000 neighbourhood policing resources in place to spend time on visible patrol and which are not deployed to plug shortages elsewhere. The first phase of this commitment is to have 3,000 officers, PCSOs and specials in place by the end of March 2026.
The NPCC has also been working with the College of Policing to launch a neighbourhood policing career pathway to provide new training for neighbourhood officers that equips them with the skills and knowledge they need to deliver a trusted and effective service to the public. It also sets out standards for professional excellence to ensure neighbourhood policing is developed as a specialist policing capability.
Part one of the Neighbourhood Policing Programme (NPP1) is exclusively online learning and covers engaging with communities, problem solving and tackling ASB.
Upon completion of NPP1, participants will be able to apply community engagement strategies to build trust and gather intelligence, and use structured problem-solving techniques to address local issues. They will know how to implement appropriate interventions to tackle ASB, and contribute to creating safer communities through visible, effective neighbourhood policing.
The complete programme will be made up of four parts and is expected to be available in full by 2027. To further support the Government’s Safer Streets Mission, earlier this year the NPCC established a new programme to specifically focus on “Trust and Confidence”.
The work of the programme will coordinate national efforts to rebuild public trust, enhance police legitimacy, and strengthen community relationships across UK policing. By uniting stakeholders from policing, academia and government, the programme will develop a national Trust and Confidence Strategy – driven by evidence-based practice and community engagement – to ensure policing is fair, transparent and trusted by all.
We are also taking forward initiatives including:
- Developing a programme of national interventions, with the College of Policing and key stakeholders, to deliver the changes required to improve public confidence
- Developing a quarterly symposium, which has been running for over a year, bringing together strategic stakeholders to share information and share thinking on police legitimacy
- Agreeing joint commitments between the Home Office, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, and the NPCC to develop a consistent, and sustainable approach to addressing trust and confidence
Maintaining public trust and confidence is not a one-time achievement, but an ongoing responsibility which requires policing to demonstrate a deep commitment to serving with fairness, empathy and transparency.
Temporary Deputy Chief Constable Catherine Akehurst is the NPCC programme lead for the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee
Assistant Chief Constable Dennis Murray is the NPCC lead for the Trust and Confidence portfolio