Chief Superintendent Bob Sanderson has worked for South Yorkshire Police since he was a cadet at the age of 16. Working his way through the ranks, Bob gained a degree in Law, and also dedicates his time to teaching football to youngsters across South Yorkshire.
There seems to be more fear of crime than actual crime, how can we make people feel safer in their communities?
Crime is falling over Doncaster and the NDC areas and burglaries on dwellings in particular have fallen by 20%, as well as there being significant reductions of violent crime, criminal damage and anti-social behaviour. There is a definite impact happening but the public perception is different. One of the greatest challenges the Police face is perception vs. reality.
How do the Police balance tackling crime and developing relationships throughout communities?
It’s a fine balance because we’re an enforcement agency, not social or health services. There are times when the tactic has to be; get a warrant, kick a door in, recover drugs and arrest people. But what we’ve got to do if we really want to change our society is become much better at identifying early signs, looking at problem families and individuals.
We have a significant role to play in ensuring as far as possible to engage with local communities. We do lots of activities to try and divert residents, particularly young people, away from crime and ensure we are part of the solution. We work closely with Schools and communities on a whole host of issues, including prevention of terrorism, gang culture and organised crime right through to fairly low level issues of mutual respect towards others, discipline and standards.
What do you mean by community Policing and how can it meet the needs of NDC’s diverse communities?
This is one of the greatest challenges the Police face because our communities are changing on a regular basis. One of the issues we face is we can’t deliver services to local communities unless we know what communities we have got. A key piece of work the Partnership is doing is community engagement and understanding our communities.
We have Independent Advisory Groups (IAG) for minority groups, women and young people in particular. What we are trying to do is maintain long term sustainable structures where everyone in Doncaster has a voice and where residents can engage with the Police.
Unless we engage with communities, crimes can become hidden which means we have to encourage the reporting of crime. The issue for us is that we need to create a structure in the community where people feel comfortable about coming to the Police. The structure is there through Officers, Safer Neighbourhood Teams, Police Community Support Officers and Partners and Community Together meetings where residents are sign posted to the right places so they can receive the right services.
What do you see as the biggest challenges facing South Yorkshire Police over the next year?
Funding and resources are one of the biggest issues at the moment. Over the next 3 years I will need to save approx £2.5 million and the impact will be the amount of work we can achieve across the borough. We are looking at new ways of improving services to free up resources to deliver public expectations.
When the New Deal for Communities programme ends in 2011, the funding cuts will impact on tackling crime throughout Doncaster but we aim to address this by maintaining the amount of Policing in NDC areas by working better and smarter. Residents can be reassured that policing levels throughout NDC areas will continue and a presence will still be visible. We anticipate been prepared for the end of NDC funding where a strategy will be in place to ensure there is no impact on crime and safety. The partnership structures in place are strong and these will help us continue reducing crime.
How effective are PCSO’s and what role do they play in tackling crime?
We whole-heartedly support the positive work that all our Police Community Support Officers do and welcome the terrific impact that they are having in communities throughout the Doncaster area. It should be emphasised that we are well aware of problems throughout Doncaster and there has been a multi-agency approach towards tackling the anti-social behaviour in all areas. As a result, anti social behaviour incidents have dropped considerably through sheer hard work and determination of our PCSO’s.
Our PCSO’s have a key part to play in the on-going introduction of Neighbourhood policing, to work with local communities. Through our PCSO’s we can all work together to make our communities safer and better places to live.
The most important thing for the local community is there are PCSO’s in their neighbourhoods who they can approach on a daily basis. PCSO’s are out on the streets forging links with the community and they are fundamental to the Police doing their job. We would lose a massive amount of community intelligence if PCSO’s were taken off the street because their significant roles mean they are the eyes and ears of the community and the Police service. Because PCSO’s concentrate on low level activities, it means Police Officers can get stuck into violent crime and we’re seeing big reductions. It has a double impact for us, crime reduction which we’re seeing across Doncaster and because PCSO’s are out on the streets we’ve now got a lead into crime.
Another advantage of PCSO’s is the way they are able to interact with young people, not only on the streets, but in Schools too, educating and diverting young people away from crime.
How do you aim to tackle alcohol related crimes throughout Doncaster?
South Yorkshire Police have worked collectively on this topic and our attempts are to address the very serious issue of alcohol related crime and disorder in the town centre of Doncaster.
A great deal of Police time and resources are used in the policing of town centres, particularly on weekend nights when our towns experience an influx of people who visit the many pubs and clubs. We intend to work in partnership to tackle various issues and we aim to increase education and public awareness and ensure that all existing laws to reduce alcohol related crime and disorder are properly enforced. We also want to work in greater co-operation with licensees to better ensure the safety of their staff and customers and ensure that they play their part in limiting alcohol related nuisance.
Crime and disorder reduction partnerships and town centre management schemes are two of the key routes for developing and funding schemes to tackle alcohol-related crime and disorder.
As well as reducing incidents of crime and violence, successful schemes can also make residents feel safer and happier with the local area.
What can individuals and communities do to make their communities feel safer?
Making sure that people feel safe and secure in their communities is another of our top priorities and central to that is building people’s confidence that crime is being tackled in their areas and justice is being done and being seen to be done.
The public are the best weapon in the fight against crime, and partnership work will help us to put the neighbourhood‚ into Neighbourhood Policing. With people having a strong voice in local policing priorities as well as the information and the tools they need to understand what’s going on in their area we’ll make Neighbourhood Policing work for every community
across Doncaster.
What role has the NDC played in reducing crime throughout Doncaster?
The funding NDC has provided has been a huge help to local groups in tackling community safety problems. As we develop the Policing Pledge we are looking at delivering guaranteed minimum standards for all Neighbourhood Policing Teams, and NDC has given us a clear sense of what the public expect from this.
Crime has fallen dramatically thanks to Doncaster NDC funding but we can and must continue to do more to increase the public’s confidence in justice.
