Residents across the Bradford district were invited to have their say on the local police review last October. Thousands responded by filling out questionnaires printed in the Telegraph & Argus or posted through their letterbox. Crime Reporter Joanne Earp looks at the results.

THE CHALLENGE to Bradford residents from the Telegraph & Argus and West Yorkshire Police was to help shape the future of their local force.

And people responded in their thousands...2,640 to be exact.

The review team has spent months sifting through the public consultation surveys and hopes to draw up a list of final recommendations by the end of April.

Some of those recommendations will be implemented straight away. But the rolling programme will take effect over several years.

Whatever the outcome, the public of Bradford will know that they have played a vital part in the strategy for change.

Superintendent Ian Levitt, who headed the review team, said the response from members of the public had been overwhelming.

Of the 2,640 who filled out a questionnaire 1,225 (46 per cent) were T&A readers, 1,359 (52 per cent) were residents selected at random, 26 were members of two Housing Associations and 30 from ethnic minority focus groups.

A more detailed breakdown of characteristics shows the majority - 94 per cent - were white, 59 per cent were males, only three per cent were in the 16 to 24 age group, and 13 per cent were disabled.

One thing they all had in common was the time and care they put into completing the survey.

Supt Levitt said: "People have really thought about their responses rather than ticking any old box."

The survey was followed up with a series of face to face and group consultations, including a "brainstorming" session with T&A readers.

The future of the district's police stations was a major issue, with questions on the accessibility of stations and easiest method of contacting officers.

Bradford was chosen as the first district in the force to undertake the consultation because the lease on its Odsal station runs out in 2003.

One possibility is to reduce the number of main stations in the Bradford district - and there is already speculation that such a move could signal the end for Bradford Central.

The survey looked to members of the public to help decide the sorts of contact points which should be on offer in the future.

"We still have issues surrounding some of the building stock. The lease on Odsal police station runs out in 2003.

"That was one of the main reasons why Bradford was chosen for the police review. But any move to a new station will take time.

"Without giving anything away, we are looking at a number of options - all of which would involve changing our existing internal boundaries

"We have a lot of work ongoing with our buildings department, looking at the needs of policing in Bradford.

"We are looking at how to develop new and existing sites, but until the recommendations go to the steering group next month we won't know which options are going to be picked."

The survey results showed Odsal, Toller Lane and Eccleshill were the busiest stations in the district, while Bradford Central received fewer visits - despite its city centre location and its 'open all hours' availability.

More than three quarters of respondents considered their local station to be convenient. Bradford Central, Dudley Hill and Toller Lane were amongst the lowest rated.

The main reason was 'too far away'. Another gripe was that they were not on a main bus route. A lack of proper parking facilities was also cited.

Respondents were also given the opportunity to rank the importance and performance of 24 policing activities.

Reactive tasks such as responding to emergencies and investigating crime were top of the pile on importance. Proactive tasks like policing sporting events were seen as less important.

Older residents ranked foot or cycle patrols and rowdyism as high priority while younger people placed more importance on dealing with domestic violence and drink-drivers.

On performance, dealing with road accidents came out top while the issue of bobbies on the beat languished at the bottom of the pile.

The survey also asked about people's reasons for getting in touch with the police, and the method they felt was most convenient.

The main reason for contact was because people wanted to report an incident or had been victims of crime. Seven per cent had been involved in a road accident and 1.5 per cent arrested.

Just over a quarter of those surveyed visited police stations to report crime and 12 per cent had done so to hand in or collect lost property.

The most convenient method cited for contacting the police was by telephone. Other people saw shop and Council premises as useful contact points, and more than 200 said they would use e-mails or interactive computer links.

The responses certainly offer food for thought - with the possibility of small community-based contact points a real possibility.

Whatever the recommendations of the review team, change will not happen overnight. Supt Levitt said: "We have to ensure the changes we do make lead to genuine improvements."

He is also keen to stress that the police review is very much an on-going process. "We will keep revisiting the recommendations every six months or so to make sure what we said would be done is actually being done."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.