Feature: How have North Yorkshire Police changed after budget cuts?

Residents in Harrogate were invited to find out how policing is changing in North Yorkshire at an exhibition this week.

The number and type of incidents police deal with, the different roles withing policing and the use of technology to target criminial activity were all be addressed during the exhibition.

Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police (NYP) Jones explained that the idea behind ‘Policing in North Yorkshire’ was to address concerns about budget cuts and explain their plans for the future.

In a recent report on Police Performance for the year, it was revealed that crime has increased in Harrogate by 2.6 per cent.

However, despite this, the report also highlighted that 83 per cent of what the police deal with is now none crime related.

Chief Constable Jones said the exhibition was launched to explain this shift in how the police are working and the increased pressures on resources.

He said: “People are not naive. They watch the TV and they read the news and there is a general concern about the cuts. Also, policing has changed and it may have been a while since people knew that and had been briefed on that so we are trying to show them what it’s going to look like.

“Myself or the commissioner will be there at the exhibiton to take questions but we are there to promote a conversation with the public.

“Most people have a perception that the police does nothing but crime but, in fact, that’s only a fifth of what we do and we want to explain that to them.”

Crime in North Yorkshire

Last year, NYP dealt with 225,000 incidents ranging from shoplifting to murder cases, as well as playing a key role in major events such as the Tour de France.

Despite crime accounting for less than a quarter of the force’s activity so far this year, there demands on the police are changing with society.

In the report on police performance it was revealed that burglary, vehicle offences and anti-social behaviour had reduced while sexual offences and cyber crime had increased.

Chief Constable Jones said: “Harrogate does not have a boundary that stops the internet so we need to think how we can provide a more 21st century response to this risk.

“We allow the internet into our homes every day so we need to start working with parents to make people feel safe to use it.