From street safety to night time policing, Norfolk's new police chief has made his priorities clear on how to keep the county safe.

Chief constable Paul Sanford is aiming for officers to be more visible in their communities in order to find out which issues matter the most and put measures in place to address concerns.

He said that the force would build on strong foundations of protecting neighbourhoods from harm with a renewed focus on policing.

To support these priorities, the Community Policing Team (CPT) has been formed under the community safety command to boost policing capacity within Norfolk.

Since the start of December, the CPT has conducted 24 patrols since the beginning of December, equating to around 68 hours of visible foot patrols, which has resulted in five stop searches, eight intelligence submissions, nine live investigations and two arrests.

During the past few weeks, the team have assisted with street safety and night time patrols, events and local hotspot policing.

Chief superintendent Dave Buckley for county policing command said: “We remain committed to dealing with the issues that are effecting our local communities, to make the people of Norfolk feel safe.

“It is vital that we are visible and that we reach out to our residents to understand their concerns and offer solutions as to how we can deal with the issues that really matter to them.

“The recent launch of the community policing team will help to assist local officers with added resources and specialist skills needed to deal with crime hotspots through problem solving.”

Chief inspector Ed Brown for community safety added: “Since the launch of the CPT in November, we have been assisting districts across the county with a number of local policing issues including anti-social behaviour and street safe patrols which have had some really positive results.

“Each CPT officer will work alongside their aligned local policing teams and supervisors to identify opportunities for the CPT to provide support. Their duties are flexible and will depend on organisational demands, priorities and emerging issues within local policing.”

Mr Sanford, who has served in Norfolk throughout his policing career, had been in temporary charge of the force since former chief constable Simon Bailey retired at the end of June, but stepped into the role permanently earlier this month.