Police divert Leeds neighbourhood officers to emergency response as demand 'trebles' in some areas

Inspector Mark Gamlyn said the force was dealing with “treble” the number of calls it would normally expect in some parts of Leeds. The spike means resources usually devoted to tackling low-level crime and anti-social behaviour are being directed elsewhere.

Insp Gamlyn, who is the new neighbourhood policing team (NPT) inspector for Leeds South, made the remarks at a Leeds City Council meeting in Middleton this week. He told local councillors on the Inner South Community Committee that police were currently handling around 500 incidents “at any one time” in Leeds, compared to an expected figure of around 150.

He said: “I’d say calls for Leeds over the last four to five weeks have been the highest I’ve ever known it, and it’s eight years I’ve been here. The directive has been for neighbourhood policing teams to backfill and support call handling. What we feel is if we’ve got emergency calls and we haven’t got response cops available, we have to cover those calls. It’s been a real challenge for us because our officers have been diverted to (those duties) for quite a bit.”

Insp Gamlyn said that the “significant spike” in calls had been seen in the eastern and western parts of the city, rather than the south. “I’d expect the figures to be proportionate across the city, but they’re not,” he added. “We’ve found we’ve not seen a spike here. It’s not doubling or trebling as it is in some parts of the city.”