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Community policing

Unit 10 of the Level 5 Diploma in Professional Policing Practice, with the law behind it and the pages on this site to read alongside.

What the unit covers

Community policing is unit 10, the last of the ten mandatory units in the SFJ Awards Level 5 Diploma in Professional Policing Practice, at 97 guided learning hours and 18 credits. The handbook says it focuses on the role of community policing "in building relationships with diverse communities and collaborating with various partners".

There are three learning outcomes. The first is to understand community policing: its function and the issues that arise in it, the opportunities policing has to support crime prevention, the methods that get the most out of communication with individuals and communities, and why particular incidents and events have damaged community engagement with the police. The second is to understand diverse communities and the role of partners: how relationships between the police and diverse communities can be improved, the effect on policing of differing values, ethics and norms, and why public protection incidents need a multi-agency approach. The third is practical: communicating and engaging proactively with communities, including through social media, developing productive partnerships, and acting professionally and ethically.

In the apprenticeship standard (ST0304) the same ground is duty 12, communicating and proactively engaging with communities, supported by skill 17 on collaborating with community organisations and skill 18 on problem-solving for prevention. Local policing or community officer is one of the standard's typical job titles.

The law and procedure behind it

This summary follows the site's own pages linked under Read on this site, which carry the section and Code citations; the sources listed above are the training documents, not the Acts. Read the Act or Code before relying on any point here.

Neighbourhood policing is the model of dedicated teams for defined areas, building local knowledge and addressing recurring crime and anti-social behaviour through problem-solving rather than reaction. The teams mix constables with police community support officers, civilian staff introduced by the Police Reform Act 2002 who exercise only the powers their chief constable designates from Schedule 4, typically including detaining a person for up to 30 minutes pending a constable, and special constables, volunteers appointed under section 27 of the Police Act 1996 who hold the full powers of the office.

The partnership duty is statutory. Section 17 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 requires local authorities and police to consider crime and disorder in all their functions, and the Act created the community safety partnerships through which they work together. Governance sits with the chief constable, who has direction and control of the force under the Police Act 1996, and the elected Police and Crime Commissioner created by the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011, who issues the police and crime plan and holds the chief constable to account. The public sector equality duty in section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 applies to every force, and the Prevent duty under section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 requires due regard to the need to stop people being drawn into terrorism.

Anti-social behaviour has its own toolkit in the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014: civil injunctions, criminal behaviour orders on conviction, community protection notices, public spaces protection orders, closure notices and orders, and the dispersal power under sections 34 and 35, which an inspector authorises for a locality for up to 48 hours. The Crime and Policing Act 2026 changed several of these from 26 October 2026, lengthening dispersal directions to 72 hours with an inspector's review and splitting civil injunctions into youth and housing injunctions. For low-level offending a community resolution, with the victim's agreement and the offender's admission, resolves the matter without prosecution. Hate crime is any offence perceived to be motivated by hostility to race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or transgender identity, and carries enhanced sentencing.

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Where it sits in training

The College of Policing's 2026 joining guide sets the common milestones: initial off-the-job learning within five to six months, a tutored patrol phase within ten months, and full operational competence at around two years. It describes every route as operational, with recruits on patrol in their community as soon as practical, and names neighbourhoods as one of the five specialist areas a PCDA or DHEP recruit may choose for the final year.

In the diploma, the practical criteria on engagement and partnership are assessed once Independent Patrol Status is confirmed, each evidenced at least twice in the Operational Competence Portfolio, with the handbook mapping them to the national Independent Patrol Status criteria. The knowledge criteria on community policing, diverse communities and partners are evidenced at least once. The handbook also runs operating in accordance with the law, Authorised Professional Practice and the Code of Ethics as a golden thread through all ten units, and this is the unit where that thread is most visible.

Sources

Last updated 19 October 2026. Reviewed 19 October 2026