Essex Policing

Community Policing Team

Community policing is about local policing; police, partners and the community working together, to identify and tackle issues of concern in Essex.

Changes implemented during 2016 have altered the shape of policing in West Bergholt and its neighbouring villages and the Community policing initiative has led to the creation of a team for the Colchester area.  The Colchester Community Policing Team is made up of police officers, police Community Support Officers and Specials under the command of an Inspector and a Chief Inspector District Commander.

To quote the Essex Police web site

The team aims to protect people from harm, speak with communities about their concerns, gather information and help find answers to local problems.

The Colchester Community Team is made up 11 Police Officers and 10 Police Community Support Officers (PCSO) with two Police Sergeants and an Inspector.  The team have a number of Local Priorities however, these are largely Essex wide initiatives so there is a definite change away from Local Policing to generic Community Policing.  View the Local Policing for Colchester here.

To help engage with communities there are two separate meeting forums that residents can attend and report issues.  In addition to these forums, residents can raise an issue directly with the Chairperson of the forum or with your Ward Councillors.

The two meeting forums together with the relevant links are:

• Local Community Meetings – These are administered by the police.
• Local Community Action Panels – Meetings are held quarterly for West Bergholt, which is located in Zone 4. These are multi agency forums that include the police.  These are administered by Colchester Safety Partnership.

What About Neighbourhood Watch?

Neighbourhood Watch are the eyes and ears of community policing and are most effective when issues are developing in our village i.e. antisocial behaviour, suspicious activity or just awareness when security alarms are activated.  Any occurrence of such incidents can be recorded by an effective Watch team and reported to the police for appropriate action to be taken.

However, our village desperately needs a volunteer to undertake the coordination of a village team and to act as a local interface to the NST.  If you want to make a major contribution to your village and can provide a few hours of your time to co-ordinate our Neighbourhood Watch team then please contact the Parish Clerk – Laura Walkinshaw on 07726 424419 or by email at [antibot mailto=”[email protected]”].

Local – Community Action Panels (LCAPs)

As part of changes implemented by the Chief Constable and Borough Commander to local policing, which came into effect from 1st October 2014, police officers will no longer attend Parish Council meetings across the Borough.

In the borough of Colchester the NAP meetings have been renamed as LCAPs but the objective remains the same.  LCAPs are a multi-agency body that give residents the opportunity to formally register issues or concerns that affect their lives.  The LCAP meetings record and co-ordinate community issues that require resolution by the Police, Colchester Borough Council, Essex County Council, Parish Councils or a combination of these authorities.  Action was then taken to address any issue raised and help cut through any “red tape” boundaries to provide a remedy where possible.

West Bergholt comes under LCAP Zone 4.

Should you have a police-related issue of a non-urgent nature, or where you wish to speak with a police officer in person, you are advised to attend a Local Community Action Panel meeting.  Meeting dates and action plans for our zone can be found on the Colchester Borough Council web site here.