AN UPDATE on safeguarding has been given by Bude’s neighbourhood beat manager, to Bude-Stratton Town Council recently, writes Rosie Cripps.

Last Thursday, town councillors met at the Parkhouse Centre, for their monthly full council meeting. Neighbourhood beat manager for Bude, PC Stephen South, also attended, giving the council an update on various police matters.

The meeting heard that the force’s safeguarding ‘mission’, launched in the spring of 2015, is at the heart of what local police in Bude do. Their main aim is to ‘detect and prevent harm, protect the vulnerable and reduce crime’, with PC South adding: “We work together as one team to safeguard communities and neighbourhoods.”

He explained to the council that police work with their partner agencies, such as social services, local education and housing through intervention, and information sharing using their combined initiative to the best of their abilities, to protect those in the community who may not have a voice that is readily heard.

PC South said that for this to happen, officers need to be ‘working smarter and use and put our available resources to best use’.

This is a ‘shift’ from how the police did their business, by simply detecting and reducing crime. PC South noted that the public may have already experienced this in action when contacting the police, adding that officers are unable to routinely attend ‘minor disputes over garden fences’.

The council heard that police in Bude are now aiming to screen out low level incidents and crimes where there is no evidence forthcoming to proceed with. In doing this, officers must evaluate risk, harm or threat, and any safeguarding issues against public interest and gravity of offence.