Changes to policing across Gloucestershire

As part of the overhaul of how the county’s police force operates, which comes into effect on Thursday, July 23, officers and community support officer’s shifts will be arranges around peak periods of demand while neighbourhood officers will be more focused on threat, risk and harm in communities.

Each of the county’s six policing areas – the Cotswolds, Tewkesbury, Gloucester, Cheltenham, Stroud and the Forest of Dean – will have a dedicated inspector while incident resolution officers will not only respond to emergencies but also take on a wider role. In some cases they will fully investigate incidents to their conclusion without handing over to another officer.

Inspector for the Cotswolds Karen Ellis will be based at Cirencester Police Station in The Forum, while Stow Station in High Street will remain open.

Officers will also be required to police areas other than that they are assigned to where appropriate.

Superintendent for local policing Richard Cooper said the changes had been put into place in the face of falling budgets.

“We decided to make the most of the situation and take the opportunity to redesign how we work, where we work and when we work so we can police the county as one team and put the public at the heart of everything we do,” he said.

“An important feature of these changes is that officers will be able to offer support to colleagues in other roles and in other areas of the county as and when the public most need us.

“This may also mean that as demand changes each day, officer deployments may change to manage this demand effectively.”

He added residents may not notice changes immediately but the revamp did mean more officers would be on patrol during the evening tackling anti-social behaviour.

“Neighbourhood policing is going to adapt as well and will be focussed more on addressing threat, risk and harm,” he said. “With our neighbourhood officers working seven days a week and at times when neighbourhood problems normally arise we’ll be able to deal with those problems quickly and put in place effective long term solutions.

“The six local policing areas will continue to have individual Inspectors and they will be a point of contact for local communities, for partners, and for elected representatives at parish, town, city, district, county council and parliamentary level.”

As usual any problems can be reported to police on 101, or 999 in an emergency.

Superintendent Richard Cooper will be taking part in a live webchat between 5.30pm and 7pm on Tuesday, July 21. For more information or to take part click here.