Community Policing Highlighted On Strategy Launch

A large area around greater Belfast - covering the whole of Co Antrim - has had a new strategy for community policing introduced.

The 2008 Community Policing Strategy for the area was officially launched by the PSNI this week when local police chiefs, including the District Commander, Henry Irvine and Newtownabbey Area Commander, John McCaughan, met at Carrickfergus Civic Centre for the launch.

The new strategy - which is being rolled out across east Antrim and covering Newtownabbey, Carrick, Antrim and Lisburn - aims to improve access to local policing services, give residents influence over policing priorities in their neighbourhoods, and improve communication between the police and local communities.

It is understood that PSNI chiefs will aim for better access to policing and increased communication with local people through neighbourhood community engagement events, use of the internet and police drop-in 'surgeries'.

“We will demonstrate that we are a listening organisation, that we understand the needs of our communities and that we empower people in every neighbourhood to set our priorities. We believe this will increase public confidence in policing and reduce the fear of crime,” Chief Superintendent Irvine commented.

“Local people deserve answers. They have a right to hold us to account for how we are working to make their neighbourhoods safer.

"We are committed to ensuring that when communities tell us the issues they want us to tackle, not only do we tackle them, but we also let them know what we have done and let them, not us, decide how successful we have been,” he added.

(BMcC)