A YEAR ago marks the date that policing in North Ayrshire was changed for the better. 

On April 18, 2016 the police force launched six new dedicated Locality Policing Teams. 

The new teams have responsibilities for building strong community relationships, being identifiable points of contact and most importantly taking ownership for local problem solving

They were spread across the area, with the teams being based in Arran, the Garnock Valley, Irvine, Kilwinning, North Coast and Cumbrae and the Three Towns.

Chief Inspector Brian Shaw, Area Commander, said: “We looked at the way we were delivering community policing and identified opportunities to improve our local community engagement and visibility with a stronger emphasis on prevention and problem-solving.

“To do this we felt the structure we had in place needed to change and this led to the development of our dedicated Locality Teams. 

“One year on, the teams are now embedded in our communities and I firmly believe we have taken a huge step forward in delivering what we wanted to achieve.

“Our visibility has greatly improved and I now regularly receive feedback from local people who are seeing officers on the beat more often and in areas where people are telling us that there are issues - this is great to hear.

“The Locality Officers themselves have improved their local knowledge by getting to know local people, building trust, developing valuable relationships and ultimately gaining public confidence.

“Locality Teams now engage in joined up partnership working which has resulted in solutions to long-standing problems. 

“This builds on the success of our Prevention First approach which identifies crime trends and areas of concern.

“Local people help us to identify our policing priorities with drug misuse and homes being broken into being identified as a concern.

“Our Locality Teams are working hard to tackle these issues and we have seen a lot of positive results in the past year with many more drug dealers being arrested and housebreaking crimes having reduced by over 30 per cent.

“We will continue to develop this new approach as we move into year two.

“I would like to thank our local communities and partners for their support as we work together to make North Ayrshire a safer place in which to live, work and visit.”

Police Scotland can be contacted by calling 101 (in an emergency always dial 999)or by calling CrimeStoppers by calling 0800 555 111