UK Plans 13,000 More Officers for Neighbourhood Policing

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has unveiled the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, which aims to enhance community safety by deploying 13,000 additional police officers into neighbourhoods by 2029. This initiative seeks to address the decline in visible policing, with reports indicating that the number of people seeing officers in their communities has halved in a decade, while incidents of antisocial behaviour reached one million last year. The new measures will ensure every community has dedicated neighbourhood policing teams, focusing on prevention to stop minor crimes from escalating into serious offences. Specially assigned local officers will tackle crimes in town centres during peak times, and each police force will have an antisocial behaviour lead to collaborate with residents and businesses. Starmer emphasized that everyone deserves to feel secure in their neighborhoods and that effective policing should not be determined by geographic location. The plan represents a significant shift towards proactive policing strategies, aiming to restore public trust in law enforcement.