A NEW recruitment campaign has been launched to boost North Yorkshire Police's frontline.

The force is looking to take on 50 new Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs), over the next 12 months, to help improve the number of officers on the frontline, which has experienced a 15 per cent drop in recent years.

Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner, Julia Mulligan said the new PCSOs would be paid for from the precept increase which was approved earlier this year, and would take part in neighbourhood patrols, help tackle antisocial behaviour, provide crime prevention advice and support investigations alongside warranted officers.

Deputy Chief Constable Phil Cain said although PCSOs were not able to arrest suspects, they were vital for local policing as they provided "a very direct link with communities, and help to solve the problems that can affect peoples’ quality of life".

He said the precept increase would allow for 20 new PCSOs, "which is really positive, and will make a significant different to communities", but the force was also recruiting "to fill vacancies that have arisen from people retiring or moving into warranted officer roles".

When she was appointed as Chief Constable, Lisa Winward pledged she would return frontline officer numbers to 1,400 by this month, but North Yorkshire Police have not yet confirmed whether this figure had been met.

DCC Cain said "great progress" was made last year "in attracting candidates from a diverse communities into the force, and we’re continuing to focus on that again this year".

Julia Mulligan said this campaign was "one of the biggest recruitment exercises in North Yorkshire Police history".

She said: "Having taken the difficult decision to increase the precept to meet the demands of communities for more visible policing, recruiting extra PCSOs - together with the recruitment of an additional 50 police Officers - is going to provide that tangible change that communities want to see. I will now be closely watching the progress of the PCSO and police officer recruitment plans, to ensure the money raised via the precept is spent on what the public wanted."

If you are interested in applying to join North Yorkshire Police as a PCSO, go to northyorkshire.police.uk/pcso