The force is going from having 50 to 100 neighbourhood officers over the next 18 months, with further increases expected in the future.

They are being paid for through a combination of a rise in the police precept and money from the government’s uplift funding.

The force now has 1,367 officers, 197 more than it did four years ago, with plans to recruit a further 130 officers in the next two years.

This means the force can now increase the local neighbourhood teams without taking resources from emergency response or other specialist crime areas.

The increase in neighbourhood officers will include the latest intake of new recruits who, for the first time, will join a neighbourhood policing team straight from their initial training and spend the first part of their career as dedicated neighbourhood PCs. This will also mean for the first time the public will have direct access to named officers said chief constable Nick Adderley. 

The new officers started their basic 17-week training in January and will join their local policing team in May, when they will complete the next stage of their development working alongside an experienced neighbourhood officer.

Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Stephen Mold said: “As the voice of the public in policing and crime, I know how powerful and effective visible, local policing can be. Across the county, people tell me that they want to see this focus on the crime that really matters to them in their community.  That’s why I am so proud to be able to be part of this new focus on local, neighbourhood policing to fight crime.

“This has been made possible thanks to the investment that local people have made through their council tax in support of Northamptonshire Police, and I am confident that people across the county will see an increased engagement with their local policing teams and be able to identify the officers who are able to deal with the issues that matter to them in their area. This local focus will strengthen the Force’s work with partners to tackle specific issues on a local level and reduce crime and anti-social behaviour.”

Nick Adderley, Northamptonshire Police chief constable, said the increase meant their vision of a “better connected, accessible, visible and contactable police service starts to become a reality”.

“This is the future of Northamptonshire Police; a force that understands, listens, anticipates, problem solves and reacts to issues at the earliest opportunity, a force which bears down heavily on those who commit crime and anti-social behaviour yet one which works with communities and individuals to divert them away from such activity where possible.

“I believe that by putting bobbies back on the beat we will provide the right connection and service, a service that the public deserves and quite rightly expects. 

“We've worked really hard to build those relationships within the communities. This will enhance and accelerate that opportunity because for the first time they're going to have named individuals who they can call their local police, they will have access numbers straight to them.

“I think that's really important - if you take that from the very lowest level of antisocial behaviour, right the way to the very highest level of counterterrorism, terrorism intelligence - history has told us that the seeds of that intelligence start in those communities.”

The force is also investing more than £100,000 in two new mobile police stations. These bespoke vehicles, which are due to be launched in April, will enable neighbourhood policing teams to provide greater support and a more visible and accessible policing service to the county’s more remote and rural communities.

CC Adderley said over the past few years PCC Mold has pushed hard on investments in technology which has allowed officers to do more and more of their job remotely.

“We’re now seeing visibility at the highest level that we've ever seen in Northants before because there is nothing that you can't now do on a mobile device that officers have traditionally had to do by coming back to the police station. They don't want to be stuck in the building. We don't want them stuck in the building.”