Extra officers redeployed to neighbourhood teams

The West Midlands Police Crime Commissioner has defended redeploying almost 140 officers to tackle neighbourhood crime as he bolsters local teams with 309 officers.

Up to 150 new West Midlands officers will join the teams, along with 139 officers moved from elsewhere within the force and 20 newly funded Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs), Simon Foster said.

It was now up to the chief constable to "divvy up" where they would work across the seven local policing areas.

Foster said it would not leave gaps within the force as officers were in dedicated areas "as opposed to having to be regularly extracted in order to deal with response policing and force investigations, for example".

"As a consequence of the investment we secured in January 2025, that was £12.2m, that enabled us to recruit 150 additional, new police officers into neighbourhood policing and also 20 PCSOs," he told BBC Midlands Today.

"As part of that package, we're redeploying officers within West Midlands Police - 139 of those - into dedicated neighbourhood policing roles in neighbourhood teams."

The officers could spend more time focusing on a "prevention and problem solving approach", he said, which was unique to neighbourhood policing.

The teams have also been given new police vehicles and kit including the latest body-worn video cameras.

The increase in neighbourhood officer numbers of 49% from March 2025 to March this year, meant West Midlands Police has achieved the largest increase in neighbourhood policing in the country, the force said, with Cumbria Police achieving a 40% increase.

Foster said the investment in officer numbers demonstrated that he was meeting the national Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, "ensuring an accessible, reassuring and visible, police presence in every local community".

Overall, Foster said there had been a rise in the number of arrests made by the force, improvements in 999 and 101 call responses and more offenders being prosecuted.

In October, the force saw a 6% fall in all crime across the West Midlands, the biggest drop in England and Wales.

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