Local policing proposals

Introducing our review 

Thames Valley Police is looking to review the structure of local policing. The last review of this nature took place in 2010. In 2023, we are working in a more complex environment, with a rise in recent years in digital crime and increasingly harmful and complex offences such as child sexual exploitation and county drugs lines. 

Following extensive research and analysis two proposals are now being considered: 

• A continuation of the current 11 Local Policing Area (LPA) model, but with enhancements where possible, or ​
• A five-area command model; the five areas would be Oxfordshire, Berkshire West, Berkshire East, Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes.

The review aims to enhance the service we provide, with no decision being made to the detriment of neighbourhood policing. Across both proposals, we will keep the same number of neighbourhood teams and seek to increase the number of officers in visible patrol roles. 

The proposals aim to:  

• Strengthen neighbourhood policing 
• Protect vulnerable people 
• Respond to demand 
• Protect our workforce

Work so far 

The review has been looking at different structure options based on long-term trends, future scenarios in policing and how other forces are dealing with the challenges ahead. Discussions with officers and staff of all ranks across local policing have also been taking place to take into consideration the views of those working within this area. Partner agencies have also been engaged with to make sure any proposals work across our area. 

Scope  

The driver for this review is about addressing changes in policing and in society so that our force is fit for the future; for our people, our partners and the public we serve. Any changes in structure will allow further investment into frontline service delivery; especially for domestic abuse, serious crime investigation and neighbourhood policing. 

There are lots of things that won’t change under a new model. Any potential move to a five-area model will not mean a move to five central police stations. In addition, we will maintain many of the same units, such as neighbourhood policing, including the current 108 neighbourhoods, Criminal Investigation Departments (CID), Priority Crime Teams and Incident and Crime Response Teams (ICR). 

Strengthening Neighbourhood Policing 

Our proposals under both 11 and five-area command models aim to strengthen policing in our communities by: 

• Maintaining the same number of geographic neighbourhood teams but enhancing the numbers of officers within them 
• Bringing in 80 additional neighbourhood officers, funded by the Police and Crime Commissioner

Further resources could be put into neighbourhood policing by converting some current vacancies in PCSO roles into police officer posts dedicated to supporting neighbourhood policing. We recognise PCSOs as a critical part of visible patrolling and community engagement and this conversion will not result in the removal of PCSOs. However, with no clear career progression and lack of consistent supervision, the PCSO role is currently difficult to recruit and retain.  

Both proposals plan to address these challenges by maintaining the current number of PCSOs in post alongside trialling a new PCSO Supervisor role. This new role will offer career progression to existing PCSOs as well as more support through greater supervision. We hope this will increase satisfaction with the role and encourage our PCSOs to remain with us for the longer-term.  

Moving to a five-area command model would give us the flexibility to refocus current teams and move resource to where it is needed. This would allow: 

• Geographic neighbourhood teams to engage in community, patrol and enforcement activity.
• 20 officers to work with schools 
• 10 officers focused on mental health, ensuring we are aligned with partner agencies to help the most vulnerable

Protecting vulnerable people 

Our proposals aim to improve our service to the most vulnerable in our communities by:  

• Creating a new Harm Reduction Unit, providing stronger governance and more consistent harm reduction activity, such as the monitoring and enforcement of Domestic Violence Protection Orders. This will be done across areas and focus on safeguarding and harm prevention opportunities within mental health, exploitation of children and vulnerable adults and domestic abuse. 
• Creating officer posts dedicated to obtaining and managing protection orders that support victims of crime such as stalking and domestic abuse

These are possible under both 11 and five models, however would be better resourced and more efficient under the five model. 

Responding to demand 

Our proposals for both 11 and five-area command models allow us to put resource where demand is by creating a Proactive Team focused on County Drugs Lines and Serious Acquisitive Crime. 

This will take the existing teams and put in a consistent structure that will have a good balance of supervisory ratios, dedicated senior officer support and opportunities to work more effectively across areas. 

Protecting our workforce 

Policing is under pressure, and our teams, particularly our frontline, face high demand coupled with significant numbers of newly recruited officers. These new officers much bring much needed additional capacity into our force, as well as diversity of experience and backgrounds, but need time and support to develop into experienced and effective police officers. Our proposals for both 11 and five areas are looking to free up officer time to create capacity to support neighbourhood teams and improve victim service. 

Within a five-area model, sergeant posts could return to frontline response and be redeployed to support our new officers. 

Response times 

Response times are what we refer to as the time taken from the receipt of a 999 call to our officers attending an incident.  

Incident response times depend on a range of factors including how many officers are available to respond, the number of staff able to take calls, the workloads of officers and where response officers are based.  

At this stage of the review there are no plans to change the location of any of the response bases. However, moving to a five-area command model could mean more officers based on neighbourhoods, which could reduce overall response times.  

Further modelling of response times under a five-area model is ongoing.  

We know time taken to respond to emergencies is essential. Under a five-area model we would strive to maintain current response times and make improvements where we can. 

Conclusion 

We’ve looked at enhancements we could make to our existing 11 LPA model as well as what could be achieved under a new five-area command model.  

Some proposals work across both models, however within those we have found benefits and resource easier to find within a five-area command model than the existing 11 LPA model. 

It’s important to us that any decision we make is informed by feedback. Therefore, no decisions on a final model for local policing will be made until after we have reviewed your feedback. 

Share your thoughts 

Thank you to those who took the time to submit a response to our Force Review survey. The feedback received will be taken into consideration as part of our proposals, with further updates to follow.