New Bury St Edmunds Community Engagement Officer replaces PC who has served for 30 years

Four new Community Engagement Officers (CEO) have joined Suffolk Police to ensure the force forges ever closer links with communities, individuals and partners.

PC Andre DeJongh replaces PC Paul Fox as the CEO for the Bury St Edmunds area.

Paul is retiring from the police after 30 years of serving Suffolk’s communities within the force.

PC Hannah Creasey will be working in the Ipswich East area, allowing current CEO PC Rachel Partridge to focus her attention on the Woodbridge and Felixstowe area.

PC Diane Porter and PC Sarah George will be based in Hadleigh and the surrounding villages.

PC Michael Small will continue his focus on Ipswich West area.

These officers will be working closely with the Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNTs) to build on local engagement opportunities with the aim of keeping residents informed of what their police force is doing in their area.

The CEOs use a number of methods to engage with communities from the traditional police surgeries, community meetings and ‘pop-up’ meetings to making more use of social media and new technology.

Each of the CEOs has a dedicated Facebook account for their locality where they can provide local information and highlight events, campaigns, initiatives and meetings. They also regularly tweet out updates on the local Twitter accounts.

For the Bury St Edmunds Police Facebook go to click here or twitter click here.

Dave Cutler, assistant chief constable, said: "We know that listening to our communities and providing information on what we are doing and what is happening in local areas is vital to effective policing and that is why we introduced the CEOs.

"They are an integral part of Safer Neighbourhood Teams and their role is always developing. All of our CEOs are absolutely committed to their role and we have seen fantastic work those in role already have achieved. I know that the Hannah, Diane, Sarah and Andre will work as passionately as their colleagues.

"Our digital platforms are a key method of informing and engaging with the people of Suffolk. Our digital presence continues to grow with an average of 64,000 people viewing our force website each week – a 40 per cent increase on 2018.

"We now have 70,000 followers on our Constabulary Twitter account and nearly 72,000 on our Facebook account. We know the importance of using social media to ensure our engagement is as extensive as possible but other more traditional methods of visibility and contact are as important as ever to us and our communities.”

Sgt Steve Wright who oversees the work of the CEOs said: "I am really looking forward to the new CEOs joining us and contributing to the work. The Constabulary will have 12 officers in post and this means we can further support the Neighbourhood Teams and wider policing response across Suffolk in keeping all of our communities safe and ensuring we identify and arrest those offenders committing crime across the county.

"One key platform is the Constable’s County magazine – a publication issued every other month to let people know what the CEOs have been doing recently in their area. You can download a copy from our website.”

Tim Passmore, Police and Crime Commissioner, said: "I have seen at first hand the great work being carried out by officers in this new role. The Community Engagement Officers have joined me on my public engagement programme this year and they have all shown huge commitment and enthusiasm for the communities they represent.

"Talking to people across the county many comment that improved communication is important. I am sure this new role will address many of these public concerns and I wish the new officers well with their new responsibilities.”

The CEO is a uniformed operational role, operating from the nine existing locality bases with the officers’ working day and evening shifts.

For more details of how you can get in touch your CEO go to www.suffolk.police.uk/contact-us/other-contact-options/community-engagement-officers