NEIGHBOURHOOD policing teams as we have come to know them will be a thing of the past in Swindon from November.

The change comes as the Police and Crime Commissioner, Angus Macpherson, accepts that Wiltshire Police faces challenges and needs to adapt its way of working to meet them.

Rather than working in small teams from local police points, the new model will see larger teams working from Gablecross before then being sent to cover specific areas.

The force is describing the change as broadening the size of local teams but it could equally be seen as absorbing dedicated local resources into the wider policing pool.

While the primary stated aim is providing a more effective service to the public, the force also accepts that the need to achieve financial efficiency is ever-present.

Superintendent Charlie Armstrong, police commander for the northern district, said: “I want to reassure the public that the focus remains on local communities.

“Now we have separate teams – those responding to 999 calls, neighbourhood teams and crime investigators.

“These new larger teams will bring together PCs, PCSOs, local crime investigators and special constables.”

The project has been named ‘community policing’ – something which many in the public probably thought was already happening.

Indeed Supt Armstrong says the model quite closely resembles what the force was doing when she joined 24 years ago, just with new equipment.

“Technology changes the way we can work,” she said.

“Buildings become less relevant now that we have 4G enabled laptops and tablets, it means we can deal with incidents from anywhere.”

The plan also anticipates that 101 or 999 call-takers will be able to resolve more incidents without the need to dispatch other resources, instead they will record the details and provide the caller with the name of an officer who will be their single point of contact moving forward.

The force says this model will help to make it easier for the public to track the progress of an enquiry or incident through from the first reporting stage until its completion.

Of course it remains to be seen whether the same public who consistently call for more visible police on the streets will feel that the efficiency arguments are a good enough reason for dealing with more incidents remotely.

The force maintains that the public can expect to see the same level of PCSO coverage as before and similar numbers of officers on foot and bike patrols.

PCs on neighbourhood teams were previously the first port of call when additional numbers were needed to cover leave and support larger operations and the hope is that the new larger teams will be better able to absorb those pressures.

When asked about the potential loss of detailed local knowledge that neighbourhood teams provided, Supt Armstrong said that where possible, the new teams would consistently cover the same areas.

They will also be briefed on the policing priorities in those areas prior to deploying from their central base at Gablecross.

Mr Macpherson has described the plan as “a return to good old-fashioned policing with locally-based officers responding to urgent calls for assistance, whilst at other times being visible and accessible on their beat.”

The new model, which has been trialled in other areas already, will start from November 7.