By David Linnell

The good news is that Essex Police plan to increase the number of police officers, Special Constables and control room staff (to improve the 101 service).

They also intend to increase what officers can do on their smartphones on patrol, freeing up time to offer additional support to communities and improving performance management.

The council is also proposing various law and order initiatives, including paying for three extra Essex police officers who would be dedicated to our district.

All this follows several years of severe government funding cuts and an increase over the past couple of years in the numbers of crimes reported. However, it means higher council taxes.

At a public meeting late last year, top of residents’ concerns were drug-dealing, thefts from cars and parking offences.

The police now depend heavily on residents reporting drug dealing.

They need details, particularly vehicle registration numbers – it’s much more effective to stop a vehicle in transit, with the drugs and money inside, than to try to catch dealing taking place.

We also learnt that following a spate of thefts from cars, excellent work by a couple of local Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinators led to the police identifying and arresting the major culprit.

LRA supports Neighbourhood Watch – just Google Epping Forest Neighbourhood Watch to find out more.

LRA believes we can justify more local police if residents help by reporting any offences - using 999 only in emergencies – otherwise using www.essex.police.uk or 101, or 01245 491491.