Beat bobbies are back - but this time in force. As neighbourhood policing moves into a new era in York and North Yorkshire today, Crime Reporter Helen Gabriel explains the latest changes.

IMAGINE living in a world in which you waved to your local bobby, whose name you know, as you passed him or her in your street.

Sounds like a 1950s television drama, doesn't it? But this apparent Utopia is the vision for policing in our county in the 21st century.

Public demand is being cited as the reason for the latest ambitious raft of changes - and it's little wonder, with a recent survey finding that 35 per cent of us think crime is on the increase, and 32 per cent think this is because there are fewer police officers on our streets.

North Yorkshire's Chief Constable, Della Cannings, sees neighbourhood policing as the way to address this.

She said: "I am determined that we will have the right people in the right places in the right numbers to create neighbourhoods that not only are safe, but most importantly feel safe."

But how will it work?

From today the county will be divided into policing areas, each led by an inspector, which will be made up of smaller neighbourhood areas - a model of neighbourhood policing which was pioneered in Ryedale before being taken to other force areas.

In York, there will be 13, each of which will have its own sergeant and a team of at least five police constables, plus a further five community support officers and special constables. Until now, each area has had just one or two designated PCs, with more officers working on "response teams". Now many of those officers will be working in the community, but can still be required to respond to major incidents as and when they happen.

The theory is that they will build relationships with communities and get to the heart of any problems by tackling low level crime and preventing crime before it happens by being more "visible".

Every household in the county will receive a leaflet telling them who their team is, and residents will be able to tap their postcodes into the North Yorkshire Police website and find the names and photographs of their bobbies.

Their work patterns will change to meet our demands, with local policing teams working later at night.

Inspector Richard Crinnion, who covers York city, said: "This is where we as a public service have to get a bit more like the private sector and meet the demand of the customer."

York will also get another 24 community support officers, and their shifts will also change to better reflect the needs of the public.

The strategy is part of a national plan by the Government, due to be implemented by 2008, which is coming on stream at the same time as its apparently contrasting plans to create large regional forces.

York Labour councillor and North Yorkshire Police Authority member Ruth Potter said local policing would become even more important under a larger force.

She said: "They are now increasing the potential of good local policing to make a difference to people's lives, and this strengthening is vital at a time where we may well see a move to larger regional police forces."

Inspector Richard Crinnion told the Evening Press why he believes the changes will make a positive difference.

THIS is all about people getting to know who their neighbourhood policing teams are. It is just one step in a series of changes which started last year and will continue until 2008.

Some years ago we had local area policing, with police stations in areas like Acomb and Clifton, which police used to work from.

What we found was that because they spent all their time going from job to job they didn't get time to dedicate themselves to particular problems, so under the national intelligence model we moved officers centrally so that we could put them where the problems were as they occurred.

Now we are trying to create a hybrid by giving officers ownership of an area, but also giving them time to look at long-term problems - not just 'elastoplast' jobs. It's a question of balance.

Things are going to get better for communities, the public and neighbourhoods than they are now.

Although it's a Government decision, this is also our Chief Constable saying: "This is North Yorkshire Police." This is her vision for the future.

That's why we are doing it quicker than any other force.

We will still be providing the same response service to 999 calls. If it's an important incident then someone will come.

But there isn't a group of officers sitting around waiting for a red phone to flash. We are using all the resources we've got.

We have done a lot of demand analysis looking at where we get the most calls and what they are for.

We have had to change staff shifts to better match demand - which hasn't been very popular.

But evenings are our core time.

Community teams will be working until 3am or 4am, whereas previously they would have finished at 10pm or 11pm. This is where we as a public service have to get a bit more like the private sector and meet the demand of the customer.

Updated: 09:56 Monday, April 03, 2006