TWENTY-THREE teams of police officers patrol Swindon's neighbourhoods.

The Neighbourhood Policing Teams (NPTs) are staffed by more than 50 police officers, who are helped in looking after the town's residents by almost 50 PCSOs and 16 special constables.

As well as dealing with minor disturbances and anti-social behaviour, the NPTs work with Swindon police's specialist officers to crack the town's biggest crimes.

Neighbourhood policing in Swindon is divided into four sectors, town centre, central, North and West Swindon and east Swindon.

Each neighbourhood team holds regular surgeries so members of the community can speak to them about any concerns they have.

The teams then calculate which three priorities they are going to address over a three month period.

At the end of the three months, the teams look at if they have reached their goals and decide on priorities for the next quarter.

The chief inspector of Neighbourhood policing, Paul Mills said: "Neighbourhood policing can have real impact, and community intelligence can uncover serious crime.

"It is very clear when people are thinking about local problems they want to know who their local officer is. People want to be able to link in to their local police service "We have 23 neighbourhood policing teams, supported by response officers, CID and specialist officers.

"Each team has a community beat manager supported by community beat officers.

"We now have more than 50 PCSOs here in Swindon and they are also assisted by special constables.

"We want members of the community to tell us what the issues are.

"It helps us build a picture of what's going on in the neighbourhoods."

Chief Superintendent Paul Howlett, right, who is in charge of operational policing in Swindon said: "There are some really good things happening around neighbourhood policing.

"And I think the success of neighbourhood policing is down to the successful PCSOs and police officers in each community."