POLICE in North Yorkshire will begin a new way of working from next week, with the introduction of Investigation Hubs.

The hubs will focus on so-called 'volume crime' - the crimes most commonly dealt with by police, including burglary, criminal damage and theft - and will be located in York, Harrogate, Scarborough and Northallerton.

Working under the force's new Operational Policing Model - which also introduced the Supporting Victims Unit to provide a contact point for victims of similar crimes - the hubs are aimed at streamlining investigations, reducing bail time, and freeing up officers to return to front-line duties, and are based next to the force's custody suites, reducing transport needs for prisoners and potential evidence.

Assistant Chief Constable Paul Kennedy said the introduction of the hubs would help ensure better financial security for the force in the future.

He said: "It has been shown to simplify the way the police interact with victims, and speed up access to justice.

"The Hubs are part of a wider project to transform how we work which includes a £10m investment in mobile technology to keep officers out in the community, a £1m investment in enhanced ANPR technology, the closure of underused and outdated custody facilities and the streamlining of intelligence gathering."

The hubs will be staffed by detectives, uniformed officers and police staff, and equipped with the technology to carry out CCTV processing, drug testing and examination of mobile devices for evidence, meaning potential evidence does not need to be processed by other departments.

Police and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire Julia Mulligan said: "The public tell me that their number one priority is their local neighbourhood policing team, and there are other issues such as child sexual exploitation and domestic abuse, which need more resources.

“These demands, alongside a shrinking budget, mean changes have to be made. The investigation hubs will free up local officer time, allowing them to handover detainees rather than spend hours in the station filling in forms."

The Northallerton and Harrogate hubs will open on Wednesday, April 1. The York hub will open on April 20, and the Scarborough Hub will launch on April 27.