York police inspector ANDY EVERITT says 2003 is going to be grim for criminals

IT has already been an uncomfortable start to 2003 for burglars, drug dealers and other criminals - and they and their kind should be under no illusions. Things will get no better. By contrast, yesterday was a very good day for the police, and for the communities which we serve to protect.

During the course of the day, teams of officers armed with search warrants raided the homes of no fewer than seven suspected criminals in the York and Selby area. Even as this article was being prepared, news was coming in that quantities of drugs and stolen property had been recovered at several of these addresses.

These raids did not happen by accident. They were the result of meticulous planning, preparation and information gathering. And in many ways they exemplified the approach to policing which many in the force believe is the way of the future: intelligence-led policing.

I, like every other serving police officer, am very conscious of the need to provide a visible police presence on the streets. We have all heard the constant refrain from members of the public about how they would like to see 'more bobbies on the beat'. We would, in fact, love to flood the streets with policemen on every street corner. But the simple fact is we do not have the resources. And the truth is also that having a policeman on every street corner is not necessarily the most efficient or effective way of reducing crime and the fear of crime.

Della Cannings, our new chief constable, recently put the situation we are faced with into clear perspective. "There is no doubt," she said, "that we are being asked to do more with less, to work 'smarter', ie more efficiently.... to (provide) the most effective policing service we are able to provide."

What we need to do if we are to work 'smarter' is to develop a more proactive role, using information that we have gleaned from members of the public to target known, persistent offenders and known crime 'hot spots'. And we need to demonstrate that we are using that information to good effect.

There is a lot of talk in the modern police force about 'partnership'. Partnership working is actually very simple. It means you and me, working together to combat crime.

What happened yesterday as teams of officers went in to put through the doors of suspected criminals was the direct result of that process. We had information from a number of sources - police informers, community policemen on the ground and also anonymous calls from members of the public, people saying things like 'I've seen a number of people coming and going from that address, and I think there might be something going on.'

What happens is that the police intelligence unit and crime analysts here in York will then bring all that information together to build a picture of what is happening. We have crime analysts at York police station, constantly working on this. It may be that there will be ten pieces of information, all coming from completely different sources. They will fit that into the bigger picture, and that gives us the information we need to go to a magistrate for a search warrant. The intelligence unit also puts together an intelligence package, summarising the information received, other information held on the suspect or suspects, photographs, street plans and so on. We then know what resources need to be allocated when it comes to making a raid. Yesterday, for example, we employed two drugs sniffer dogs, because we knew it likely they would be needed.

It was this kind of process that led to the successful raids that were made yesterday. And what we need to assure the public of is that if the information continues to flow in to us, then we will continue to act.

We cannot do our jobs without your assistance. Very often, it seems people see things but don't understand or interpret what may be happening in front of them, or sometimes perhaps people ignore what they have seen. But we need to know that information, so that through our intelligence system we can act on it.

To encourage people to come forward with information, we are trying to give a guarantee to the people of York and Selby. You give us the information, you tell us when you suspect something is going on, and we will guarantee to act on it.

As a front-line duty inspector, I am very conscious that nationally, the Government is putting money into bigger cities. I am very much aware too that as a result, the police in North Yorkshire have applied to raise the police precept - the amount that ordinary people pay through their council tax for their police locally. In such a context, we need to demonstrate more than ever that we are providing a quality service.

That is why, in April this year, we will be introducing a new, more flexible structure into the way we work, which will ensure we can be more proactive than ever in targeting crime.

Under the new arrangements, front-line police officers will be split into two 'arms'. There will be more community beat officers assigned to each ward in York and Selby; but there will also be mobile quick-response teams who on the basis of information gathered and received will be assigned to police 'hot spot' areas wherever they happen to be, rather than being confined to a particular area such as the city centre, Clifton or Acomb.

It won't mean we have more manpower, rather that we make better use of the manpower we have. It may be, for example, that there is not much crime being committed in Clifton at a particular time, in which case it would make more sense, if there is a lot of crime at that time in Tang Hall - nuisance youths or car crime or whatever - to switch resources there.

It won't mean certain areas of York or Selby being ignored. Every area will have its beat officers, and every morning there will be a briefing at which we will decide where our other resources are most needed. It will be a more responsive, more flexible approach.

I know that the motivation and commitment of the police in York and Selby is high. We are keen, using the information that you provide, to be more proactive in targeting persistent offenders and crime hotspots - proactive in just the way we were yesterday.

I hope you will continue to provide us with the information that we need - and judge us by results, not just by the number of uniformed officers you see out patrolling the streets.

That way we can all work together to make 2003 an uncomfortable year for the criminals, and continue to drive down crime in the York and Selby areas.

If you suspect someone is engaged in criminal activity, call Crimestoppers, in confidence, on 0800 555 111

Updated: 11:14 Friday, January 03, 2003