For the first time, this autumn all students arriving to begin their university lives will have access to a neighbourhood policing team with responsibility for their campus and halls of residences. Freshers across England and Wales starting their degrees this month will benefit from increased support from police officers, police community support officers and volunteer special constables following the roll-out of neighbourhood policing teams in every community.

Students across the country are being encouraged to meet their new neighbourhood policing teams and to work with the police to decide the local crime priorities that matter to them. The priorities will then be set out in the policing pledge. The pledge will give a commitment to produce crime maps with information about specific crimes and criminals and action to deal with the agreed priorities. The pledge will also set out target times for responding to different types of requests and commit the teams to keep the students updated on what happened to those arrested.

The police teams will work closely with the universities, student unions, councillors, landlords and property management companies to ensure that the right safety messages are put across. They will also employ target handling schemes to make university areas safer for students.

National Union of Students president Wes Streeting said “Students’ unions have been working closely with police to clamp down on crime against students, and we welcome the establishment of dedicated police liaison officers to undertake this work.”

Since March 2008, neighbourhood police units have launched in every community in England and Wales.