The fight goes on

The same few questions crop up again and again whenever I am out and about in the course of my working week, speaking at ward meetings and with neighbourhood watch co-ordinators or local councillors. "Why don't we see more bobbies on the street?" I am asked. "Why aren't the police out catching criminals and why aren't they doing something about the rising crime?"

The fact is there are more bobbies on the beat. The 403 officers we have now in York and Selby - which together make up the Central Area of North Yorkshire police - is the highest figure for many, many years, and they are working harder than ever before, catching more criminals and detecting more serious offences.

The difference is that you won't necessarily be aware of them. This is not the 1960s or 1970s, and policing in today's society has changed out of all recognition. While community bobbies are still the foundation of policing, we must once and for all put to rest the myth of Dixon Of Dock Green.

The police are out there, but in different guises, doing different and very specific jobs. There are officers engaged in undercover drugs work, in family protection units, on truancy patrol and working with young offenders and the victims of crime. Others are involved with intelligence gathering, or are dealing with complex crime inquiries, major disasters, suspicious sudden deaths or serious road accidents.

When I started in York 34 years ago as a young police cadet, it was a different world. The community bobby was the bedrock of policing, and you were out on the street all the time.

Back in the Sixties we didn't have a gun problem, didn't have a drugs culture, didn't have the demand on our services we've got now. We had time to meet the public and, when somebody's house had been broken into, we had time to sit down and have a cuppa. It meant everybody knew you.

In those days, the policeman's belt was there to keep up their trousers - not like my officers today, whose belts have hanging from them CS gas, their Asp (the modern name for a truncheon), Airwave radios with satellite positioning chip, quick cuffs, first aid kits. Those, and the stab vests they wear, indicate how a changing society has forced changes in the way the police work.

My officers today face a society based on drugs and with a serious firearms culture. The changing face of that society means the authority of the police is not now taken for granted and is constantly being challenged.

My officers are dealing with ten times as much crime as in the Sixties, and a huge volume of calls. When I joined, we had about 400 calls a week. Now it is more like 10,000.

Part of that is because in the Sixties, there was a much stronger sense of family and community. Communities often sorted out their own problems. Today, a lot of people don't even know their neighbours. Fifty-five per cent of the population of York now have a mobile phone, and quite often their first resort is to ring the police.

So there are far more demands on us now. The police are not only in the business of crime detection: we are the first emergency service, a genuine 24-hour service.

The police are and always will be an important presence in the community, and I remain committed to community policing and value the role community officers play. I have the greatest admiration for all my uniformed officers who, often alone, patrol the streets - and the introduction of the new cycle officers has got to be the way forward.

But can a uniformed officer really have an impact on drugs crime? On burglary? Yes, they can stop opportunist crime, but in today's society we have to use other policing methods - intelligence-led policing, CCTV cameras and surveillance equipment and undercover operations. We need to be targeting and disrupting the six per cent of criminals who are responsible for two thirds of crime.

A fundamental part of the Central Area strategy has been to combat drugs. But however hard the police work, high-visibility street patrols are not the way to tackle the trafficking of class A drugs such as cocaine and heroin. This is why the visible police presence on the streets has not been as high profile as I promised, and I apologise.

But the increased crime in some of our areas has made it necessary for the police to put more resources into breaking and disrupting the drugs supply on our streets. For the past nine months a number of officers have been engaged in intelligence gathering and vigorous enforcement against those engaged in supply of drugs.

We have had some real successes. Recently, no fewer than nine drug dealers in this city and the Central Area have been convicted and have received substantial sentences. I would like to be able to identify them here, but under Home Office guidelines I am not allowed to.

Suffice it to say, we have been delighted with the heavy sentences, ranging from three to six and a half years, handed out by judges at York Crown Court. These sentences are wholly appropriate for those who have blighted the city with drugs and who have caused years of misery for many vulnerable people in our society.

That work continues. Apart from the nine who have been recently convicted, there are a further 36 people who, after being arrested and charged with serious drug trafficking offences, are now at different stages of the judicial process.

The key to this success is not just the tireless work done by the drug squad and intelligence-gathering officers, helped by information provided by beat officers. The key is for the whole community to continue to supply good intelligence which enables my officers to carry out investigations and seek search warrants from magistrates.

The police can't fight crime on their own. We need your help. So keep this information coming by ringing Crimestoppers, and let's not have the void left by the dealers we have put away being filled by others who are keen to take their place.

- Crimestoppers are on 0800 555111

Updated: 10:36 Wednesday, September 18, 2002