POLICING is in Grahame Maxwell’s blood. His father was a village bobby and used to describe himself as the ‘local chief constable’. When Mr Maxwell followed in his footsteps he spent six years on the beat, and while his dad may have joked about his lofty rank, Mr Maxwell made it for real three years ago when he became chief constable of North Yorkshire.

He cuts an imposing figure, with eye contact that never falters as he speaks about his belief in modern policing driven by traditional standards.

The chief constable is one of the authors of the national Policing Pledge, which is a set of ten promises that form an agreement between the police and the public.

However, the pledge is only part of the reforms that he and the police authority have made during his time in office. Mr Maxwell’s approach is refreshing; the days of policemen being tied up with paperwork and striving to meet targets appear far removed from his ethos.

When he took over, Mr Maxwell discovered the force he had inherited was spending £5 million more than it needed to.

“So we started looking into every job and asked, ‘Do we still need to do this and, if so, who is the best person to do it and does it require warranted powers?’,” he says.

“We had officers in nine-to-five, non-confrontational jobs, but they were paid to be police officers and to use their warranted powers. They were in the wrong place. Now, although we have fewer police officers, we have as many, if not more, on front-line duties. Even with future budgetary constraints, we are sustainable.”

Mr Maxwell believes building public confidence is not only about bobbies on the beat; it requires trust and commitment from all parts of the community.

That’s where the Policing Pledge comes in with ten areas of service and standards the public can expect. It promises to treat people with dignity and respect and outlines how neighbourhood policing teams will operate, from answering calls promptly to how victims of crime will be supported.

In York and North Yorkshire, Mr Maxwell has set up 18 safer neighbourhood teams. Led by an inspector, they consist of police officers and police community support officers (PCSOs), alongside volunteers, business people and residents.

Everything they do is governed by the pledge.

“This is where real policing takes place,” Mr Maxwell says.

“If you gain confidence, people will trust you with information. Any crime – and that’s all the way from antisocial behaviour to terrorism – starts in the community. When communities feel unsettled by something, they feed it into policing, and that’s where the big issues come from. The Policing Pledge is our commitment to help build that confidence and trust.

“Then there are certain types of specialised policing that we don’t need every day.

“To keep officers trained in these areas would take a huge investment out of neighbourhood policing, and we might only use those skills once every five years.

“So when we need specialist teams, we buy them in from forces that have them because they need to use them more regularly… the money we save is invested into safer neighbourhood teams to allow us to maintain that locally based policing.”

Concerns over closing police stations are also being addressed, and North Yorkshire is about to get 30 new stations. They will be at the heart of the community and not always where you might expect to find them, such as those already in existence at Westfield and Derwent Primary Schools in York.

“You get so many benefits from local police stations; we get a good base to operate from that’s right in the community. People get to know the team, so they are more likely to trust them with information. The result is that crime comes down and confidence goes up.”

There will also be more mobile police stations, smaller this time and about the size of a camper van. Mr Maxwell is a fan; so much so that he has already given one of them the registration number AJ 1 – which for a century had been the chief’s plate. “It always said to me, this is the most important vehicle in the fleet and for me that is the mobile police station,” he says.

Another mainstay of the pledge are the PCSOs, introduced in 2002 to answer demands for more visible patrols. They are not replacement police officers, but an extra uniformed presence in the community. They do have some power; how much is down to the chief constable.

“I gave them all the powers they could have because if you have an asset, why not get the most out of them? PCSOs are a dedicated resource to the community and their job is about visibility and building confidence and trust.

“I genuinely believe this is the best way to police North Yorkshire, and what’s nice is that in recent months we’ve had people from other forces come and look at the way we’re doing business and to listen to the passion we’ve got around what we do.”

Mr Maxwell will need all that passion in the months ahead. Public-sector cuts appear to be looming, whoever runs the Government after May, and while we may live in one of the most law-abiding parts of the country, the police still need support to fight crime. The pledge could be seen as a return to a grassroots approach. There may still be some way to go in terms of public confidence, but anything that makes the public feel they will be treated as a person rather than a number has to be a good thing.

What the Policing Pledge stands for

THE Policing Pledge is part of national programme of reform designed to increase public confidence in how crime is tackled and justice is delivered.

It was launched last year, and through it the police promise to listen and to act on problems raised with them. The police aim to answer 999 calls within ten seconds and in urban areas be at the scene within 15 minutes, or 20 minutes in rural areas.

There is also a promise that neighbourhood policing teams will keep residents informed on what they are doing about local issues and priorities, and will spend at least 80 per cent of their time working in the neighbourhood.

The pledge also promises to contact within 24 hours anyone who reports being unhappy with the police.

For more details on the pledge, visit northyorkshire.police.uk or direct.gov.uk/policingpledge