ACS has welcomed the announcement of a new Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee from the Government, aiming to ensure that every community across the country will have dedicated and specialist neighbourhood policing teams.
The announcement follows a manifesto commitment from Labour to put 13,000 more neighbourhood officers on streets, an increase of over 50% according to the Home Office.
The detail of the measures announced today include:
- Each neighbourhood will have named, contactable officers to tackle the issues facing their communities, helping to restore trust that policing is working to keep people safe
- Every neighbourhood in England and Wales will have dedicated teams who will spend their time on the beat with guaranteed police patrols in town centres and other hotspot areas at peak times such as Friday and Saturday nights
- There will be a dedicated antisocial behaviour lead in every force, working with residents and businesses to develop tailored action plans to tackle record levels of antisocial behaviour
ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “More neighbourhood police officers are urgently needed as one part of the solution to growing shop theft, anti-social behaviour and other crimes typically committed in the communities where people live, shop, socialise and work. Having a named police officer known to a retailer can make a huge difference and we want to see this become the norm for our members.
“We need to see these officers deployed in a way that really makes a difference in the heart of communities. Targeting this resource at town centres and at peak times when crime is highest might not be the right approach in every area. Shops and communities further away from major centres feel especially exposed and rarely see police officers. Police forces and Police & Crime Commissioners need to make sure these locations see the benefit of increased policing.
“What really matters is what these new officers do. Everyone knows the way to tackle retail crime: retailers must report every incident, the police must investigate every incident and identify prolific repeat offenders, and the courts must apply effective penalties that break the cycle of re-offending. Our members are interested in these results and will be judging this announcement by its success in delivering this.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The heartbeat of our Great British policing tradition is seeing bobbies on the beat, but for too long, too many communities have been feeling abandoned as crime soared and neighbourhood police disappeared, even when local crimes like shop theft, street theft or blatant drug dealing rose sharply.
"That’s why this government is determined to get police back on the beat and into our town centres. It should not matter where you live – everyone deserves local, visible policing they can trust, and with our Plan for Change and Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee we will tackle this postcode lottery and restore policing to our communities.”
Figures from the 2025 ACS Crime Report show that over the last year there have been over 6.2million incidents of shop theft recorded by convenience retailers, in stark contrast to the fewer than 500,000 incidents recorded by the police for the entire retail sector.
The top three reasons why retailers don’t report incidents of crime to the police are:
- No confidence in a follow up investigation
- Perceived lack of interest from the police
- The time it takes to file and process reports
The full ACS Crime Report is available here: https://cdn.acs.org.uk/public/ACS%20Crime%20Report%202025.pdf
The full announcement from the Home Office on the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-measures-to-put-neighbourhood-bobbies-back-on-beat
