Police have made this big change in Sheffield which they pledge will reduce crime in your neighbourhood

The reformation took effect from, Monday, March 2, and will see the current Sheffield Central and North West team split into two new units.

It is part of South Yorkshire Police’s chief constable Stephen Watson’s pledge to put all available police officers back into neighbourhood policing with the overall goal of reducing crime in targeted areas.

The old system would see a single inspector lead a team covering a large geographical area including the city centre, Hillsborough, Stannington, Deepcar and Stocksbridge.

Now, the patch will be split with two inspectors taking control of an area each in the hope neighbourhood resources are deployed more efficiently to deal with issues.

Superintendent for Neighbourhoods and Partnerships, Delphine Waring, said: "These changes will mean that there is a consistent approach across this part of the city, which I hope will be reassuring for the public.

"One recurring theme is that businesses and people living and working in the city centre want to see resources dedicated to the urban heart of the city.

"With our new city centre team, this is what they will get."

Leading the newly formed city centre team will be Inspector John Mallows, who said: “The new modernised policing strategy will allow my team and I to focus purely on the city centre and address the main issues within the core of the city.

"The team will focus on issues such as business and retail crime, violence in the night time, so called 'street culture and many other associated problems."

The change is needed as the area around Snig Hill has seen at least 42 violence and antisocial related incidents between October and December last year.

A number of residents have expressed concern about crime levels in the area.

Pensioner Sid Miller, aged 80, said: "I visit all the shops on Snig Hill at least three to four times a week. You've only got to look up and see the crime for yourself around here.

"I think the best thing that can happen is to see more police on foot on the street, instead of in cars. That's how it used to be in my day."

Allan Merzak, who owns a cafe called D cups, said: "Even though my shop is right in front of the police station, it's still been burgled.

"You see so much of it here, even with the police station behind us, it doesn't stop people. It's just not safe.

“The best way to solve the problem for me, is to increase the number of police.

Regarding the issues experienced by residents, Insp Mallows explained how the new team model will improve the situations.

He said: "In terms of officer visibility, as our new neighbourhood models mature you'll see a 50 per cent increase in warranted officers within the city centre team. We'll go from having four police constables to eight which is a significant improvement.

"As a result, the city centre will not only see an increase in visibility and the presence of officers, but also those who are engaging in specific tasks around the main issues in the city centre.

"There is always much more that we can do, we aren't perfect, but we are consistently working with businesses, consistently working to improve our communication and we are keen on developing our relationship with the community."

With the developments in the city centre well underway, Inspector Kevin Smith, described how the shuffle will inspire similar positive changes to the north west region of the city.

He said: "We will use the community-based approach to reducing crime. The north west team covers a large area of Sheffield from Broomhall all the way out to Stocksbridge.

"Therefore, we have three teams. They are called, Broomhall team, Walkley team and then we've got the existing team which will be looking to expand as we get new police officers.

"The teams will cover more of an area than their team names suggest. The Broomhall team will tackle the issues in Broomhall and immediate surrounding areas as they have for the last two years.

"The Walkley team will specialise in Walkley and Hillsborough. There will be a little bit of 'soft borders' between them Crookes and Crosspool, so we have a constant presence in the area where we get the most burglaries and issues like that.

"Then we have the existing team which will be looking to expand as we get new police officers which covers Deepcar and Stocksbridge. The rural parts of the city have got different problems and my teams will specialise in dealing with that.

"This is a really exciting moment for neighbourhood policing in Sheffield; I am pleased with the reaction from businesses and I am confident that residents in our rural communities will see a real difference."

The final message from South Yorkshire Police is to encourage members of the public to communicate and engage with officers when you can.

Insp. Smith said: "The old phrase is that information is the lifeblood of policing. If people don't report crime to us, then we don't know about it and we can't do anything about it.

"If people are experiencing anti-social behaviour, again, if we don't know anything about it, we can't do anything about it.

"The engagement between the Police and the residents needs to go both ways."

If you need to report any incidents, please dial 101 for assistance.

Additionally, you can also contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.