Herts to get 29 new police officers by April 2026 with named, contactable officer for every neighbourhood, regular peak-time patrols in town centres and anti-social behaviour leader
Neighbourhoods in Bishop’s Stortford, Sawbridgeworth and the rest of Hertfordshire are to get named, contactable officers from July, with all enquiries guaranteed a response within 72 hours.
There will also be increased police visibility in town centres in the form of regular peak-time patrols plus a dedicated anti-social behaviour leader in each force working with residents and businesses.
As part of the Labour Government’s plan to “restore” neighbourhood policing across England and Wales, Hertfordshire Constabulary will get up to 29 additional neighbourhood police officers and 11 new police community support officers (PCSOs) by April 2026 to combat the highest-priority issues for residents.
The announcement on Friday (April 11) came four days after Hertfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner Jonathan Ash-Edwards revealed that ministers had approved £3 million funding for an extra 35 neighbourhood policing officers and 20 more PCSOs across the county, following a bid by his office and Hertfordshire Constabulary. The new officers are expected to be recruited in the first half of this financial year (2025-26).
This means that Hertfordshire will be getting a total of up to 95 new officers – up to 54 neighbourhood police officers and 31 PCSOs – over the next 12 months, taking the force’s number to 2,500.
A spokeswoman for Labour in the East of England said: “In recent years, visible policing has declined dramatically, with the number of people who regularly see officers patrolling their local area halving in the past decade. This has contributed to rising anti-social behaviour and crime in town centres, eroding public confidence and leaving communities feeling unsafe and forgotten.
“From July, communities across the country will see policing strengthened with three key improvements as part of the Government’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee:
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The heartbeat of our Great British policing tradition is seeing bobbies on the beat, but for too long, communities have been feeling abandoned as crime soars. Too many communities no longer feel safe because they do not have local officers to turn to as yobs and street criminals run amok in their towns and villages.
“It should not matter where you live – everyone deserves local, visible policing they can trust – and with our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee we will end this postcode lottery and restore policing to our communities.”
At the same time, Essex Police is to get up to 74 additional neighbourhood police officers by April 2026.
