WHEREVER I go in the county, the concerns are largely the same. People want to see neighbourhood problems like anti-social behaviour taken seriously and for the offenders to be punished appropriately and swiftly.  

These issues matter to all of us and we are right to expect a tough response.  

Durham’s Neighbourhood Policing teams are the face of the force and work side by side with our communities and partners to resolve these issues. This is why I value them so highly and why I’ve fought so hard since 2021 to protect them.  

These local officers know their areas inside out and are the key to restoring public trust and confidence in the police. They have a very difficult job to do and a lot of ground to cover. The decimation of neighbourhood policing since 2010 has had an extremely damaging impact on our communities and has undermined feelings of safety. Despite the national uplift, Durham Constabulary still has 166 fewer officers than it did in 2010. True, some forces have gained, but 15 have been short-changed.  

It's against this backdrop that I welcomed the report entitled “Rebuilding Communities: Why It’s Time to Put Anti-Social Behaviour Back on the Agenda” by the Tony Blair Institute of Global Change, and the concerns it raises about the erosion of neighbourhood policing.  

I share the author’s frustration that anti-social behaviour (ASB) has been passed off as a ‘low level crime’ over the last decade and hasn’t received the urgency or focus it deserves. The absence of a clear policy from the Government has seen police forces and local authorities ill-equipped to deal with local ASB problems. The scaling back of neighbourhood policing over the past decade hasn’t helped, allowing problems to persist unchallenged. Lack of funding hasn’t helped either.  

Durham residents consistently place ASB in their top five concerns. This is why I have repeatedly called on the Home Office to do more to tackle the people’s priority and why I was the first Police and Crime Commissioner in the country to appoint a dedicated Anti-Social Behaviour Champion to lead on this work.  

Almost three in every four people choose not to report ASB to the police, according to this report’s recent poll. How do we persuade people that reporting such incidents is critical to preventing them in the future? 

The researchers offer a series of recommendations which I fully endorse. They urge the government to consult on a new local policing contract setting out minimum levels of expectation on police visibility, accessibility and responsiveness. They also call for the Home Office to ensure the police officer uplift programme is used to guarantee a minimum level of neighbourhood policing officers and present a compelling case for an independent review into the effectiveness of the interventions and powers introduced in 2014 to address ASB.  

Durham, unlike many areas of the country, has retained its neighbourhood policing model and I’ve worked hard to protect levels of Police and Community Support Officers, which are now 50 per cent higher than the national average. To make the changes our communities deserve, we need a fairer funding system that will allow forces like us to continue rebuilding our neighbourhood policing teams and make our communities stronger, safer and more resilient to crime and ASB.  

  • Joy Allen is the Labour Police & Crime Commissioner for County Durham and Darlington