Hertfordshire’s chief constable prioritises patrols with vow to make officers more visible

Hertfordshire’s top cop, Andy Prophet, has vowed to strengthen neighbourhood policing and to make officers more visible in town centres, high streets and parks.

By the end of this month, there will be “a named police officer for every community” published on the force’s website, with contact details.

His chief inspectors will be told to make sure any officer not busy with paperwork is out on patrol, rather than in the station.

Mr Prophet, who took over as chief constable of the Hertfordshire Constabulary in January, wants officers to be “out walking on foot patrol more than they are in cars”.

On Wednesday (June 4), he outlined his vision to members of the county council’s public health and community safety cabinet panel.

“I spent 10 years as a constable and a sergeant doing response and neighbourhood policing,” said the former deputy chief constable for Essex Police.

“So I see the crime and the harm that happens if you get that wrong.

“It is fundamentally what I believe policing is about at its heart – being visible, being in communities, dealing with problems at their grassroots.

“So that is […] what I am working with my organisation – and hopefully with you as partners – to achieve.”

The chief constable described the role of the police as being to “prevent crime and solve crime”, with looking after people, helping people and supporting victims being a part of that.

He told councillors: “We prevent crime and we solve crime.

“Keep it really simple. Back to basics. Every one of my people should be thinking about that. That is my expectation of them.”

He said the 100,000 crimes reported to the constabulary annually was “a relatively low number” compared to the county’s 1.2m population and when benchmarked nationally. But he stressed that it was still “too many”.

He pointed to ongoing work on “visibility and getting the basics of crime investigation right”.

He said that by targeting the right places and the right people, he was confident they could drive down crime.

Mr Prophet talked about focusing the presence of officers in the county on known crime hotspots, such as high streets, parks and gathering places.

He stressed the importance of good community engagement, ensuring the force did not have blind spots in information.

“We know where crime happens and, broadly speaking, we tend to know who does the crime, because we understand who the criminals are,” he said.

“So getting into the right places, targeting the right people – place and people – is the strategy that you will see, I hope, unfold in your communities.

The chief constable told councillors that Hertfordshire was a “fantastic county with a huge partnership potential”.

He said the constabulary was a “really strong organisation”, with “lots of potential to improve”.

He also said he wanted the force to provide an “outstanding” service for the people of Hertfordshire.

Last year, an HMICFRS inspection of the constabulary rated the service as ‘good’ in one inspection area, ‘adequate’ in three, ‘requires improvement’ in four and ‘inadequate’ in one.

The chief constable vowed to councillors that by the time inspectors returned in autumn 2026, they would see improvement.