Phil Blundell, chairman of Warwickshire Police Authority, talks about how the force will react
We have become very good at policing in our communities and, significantly, our rural areas. The success of this has partly been driven by the local knowledge of the officers.
We are not prepared to allow any proposed restructure to prevent us from continuing to make progress on this.
Warwickshire Police has built up outstanding partnerships within the community, which have been made possible by the links its officers make in the neighbourhoods in which they work. Partnerships with local borough and district councils have seen increasingly joined up working.
The links between local councils? CCTV teams and local police have seen police officers able to attend incidents as they are happening once council officers alert them, bringing higher rates of arrests while bringing the overall numbers of incidents down.
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Neighbourhood Watch has prospered, with nearly 2,000 schemes in South Warwickshire alone. E-newsletters communicate the latest news on happenings in areas from officers to neighbourhoods.
The results are twofold ? increased alertness thwarts would-be criminals and intelligence the public can provide to officers leads to increased arrests.
Youth crime is also consistently coming down in the county. Partnerships with groups aimed at diverting young people away from trouble, such as Positive About Young People, have borne fruit but have been built up over the years, time in which the results have steadily improved.
Level two crime ? organised crime and terrorism ? is not prevalent in Warwickshire although it does spill into the county from neighbouring regions. Although it is relatively uncommon, there is no doubt that the county needs to be in position to defend itself against it.
With its current resources, that would not be possible. At the moment Warwickshire Police prioritises community policing, with which the force has enjoyed a great deal of success in bringing down crime rates.
This proposed restructure is not driven by the need for financial efficiencies. We are looking at ways to make our performance more effective, and there will be some savings as a by-product.
These will, however, be directed straight back into policing.
The purpose of any restructuring would be to make us better equipped to deal with all types of crime.
Under current arrangements we are stretched if we are to seriously tackle crossborder crime as well as the community policing to which we are committed.
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