One Police Officer covers 70 sq miles of local rural  area on her own!

Im sorry but you cant call that a good service its a discrace!

 

I agree that's a far from ideal situation. Which is why I think this guidance is welcome, as anything that can help provide examples to help police forces to allocate resources effectively to support their rural communities is a step n the right direction.

I'm wondering whether the above example is of an officer in a  neighbourhood or response role, hopefully not both!

In the former, a 7x10 mile rural area would probably have a (relatively) small population and level of crime, compared to an urban area - an extreme example would be the City of London with around 1 million people living in a square mile with a tremendous rate of crime per capita - but a community beat manager for a rural area would most likely have a liaison and communication role, rather than tackling all aspects of crime prevention and solving alone.

Probably - but I'm no expert

For nearly 25 years i policed an area of 77 square miles in a isolated area of East Lancashire. Mainly moorland with pockets of population it was often an area where crime was a rare event. By working closely with the community relying on them to be my eyes and ears i was able to respond and deal to many incidents. The community was happy with this.

Following on from people's comments, Brian Livesey, Operations Manager at the National Policing Improvement Agency has kindly provided a response:
"The geographic areas covered by rural neighbourhood policing officers will tend to be fairly large due to the wider spread of population and may encompass a number of villages or smaller settlements. The officer's role will be to identify the priorities that are important to the people living in the area they cover and to work with local people and other partners on solving those problems.

In addition to resources that other partners may be able to offer to support the officer, they will be able to call on other neighbourhood officers (Sergeants, PCs and Police Community Support Officers) from surrounding neighbourhoods, police response teams and other specialized police resources to help them when necessary. In many areas there are also Special Constables, other community volunteers and Neighbourhood Watch working with neighbourhood teams.

So, although I can understand your concern at the apparent coverage, the real picture is far more positive."