BY MARK MCKELVEY
AS we move into a new era for policing, with massive changes occurring, there is a greater emphasis now being placed on community relationships, with the new District Commander predicting a "brighter future".
Since the beginning of April, the PSNI became more centralised with eight district areas replacing the previous 27 reflecting the seven super councils structure being created under the Review of Public Administration.
Former Omagh Area Commander, Chief Superintendent Michael Skuce, has taken up his position as the new F District Commander that now incorporates Omagh, Cookstown, Dungannon and Fermanagh.
Jim McCleery has taken over the reigns as Omagh Area Commander, with Brian Williamson taking that role in Cookstown and Tom Sinclair in Dungannon.
The new district commander expressed his optimism about the future of policing as, "we move towards a new policing environment" that meets the needs of the public.
"So far the change has gone well, it is not about change for the sake of change, it is about making full use of the resources that we have at our disposal," stated Mr Skuce.
"Local identity with local police will remain, it is important that we provide that consistency of approach so the community work with officers that they are familiar with, that is what policing in the community is all about.
"A lot of work has been done to move forward over the past years to work in partnership with the community. Neighbourhood watch schemes are critical in helping in policing the community as well as the work of the DPP.
"As regards crime it is a matter of building upon the performance of the past number of years. We have seen a 5% reduction in crime across the new district, and that us down to good work be the officers and help from the community.
"As we move into the next 12 months it will be our challenge to reduce crime further throughout the district. We rely heavily on the community to help us solve crime, without them helping us it is much more difficult. We need them to report the crime and help us solve the crime be reporting what they see so that we can bring them to court.
Omagh's new Area Commander Jim McCleery said that anti-social behaviour is a priority issue that they cannot tackle on their own.
"Anti-social behaviour is something that features very highly in the local policing plan. We would hope to use any innovative initiatives from anywhere we see that could be put into practice here," said Mr McCleery.
"We have a number of ongoing programmes, but we need to build community partnerships as we can not solve this on our own.
"These crimes are traditionally usually committed in late evenings and weekends, we are trying to tackle that the best we can be having as many officers on the street at those times."
Mr McCleery continued to explain how attitudes towards policing have dramatically changed in recent years.
"There seems to be more community spirit as no-one wants to witness crime or be subject to ant-social behaviour," he said. "I think traditionally police were seen as enforcers, but there is a big role in education, public awareness, partnerships with communities in order to prevent crime before it happens then being able to detect it, which is playing a bigger role than ever.
"Interaction between the public and police on the streets is far, far beyond that it was when I began here 14 years ago.
"As we start to see political stability into Northern Ireland I honestly think that we can start moving things forward with good relationships, looking what the issues are."
