MORE police officers could be pounding Suffolk's streets following feedback from members of the public.

MORE police officers could be pounding Suffolk's streets following feedback from members of the public.

Almost 500 members of the public attended seven public meetings which were held by Suffolk Constabulary and Suffolk Police Authority.

Feedback from the meetings showed that members of the public want to see more frontline policing.

The chair of Suffolk Police Authority Gulshan Kayembesaid: “We have yet to set the next budget and the feedback from these meetings will help us to set the right budget for Suffolk. We are keen to act upon what people have told us, and that is to invest more in frontline policing, but we also need to invest in the infrastructure to support it.”

The meetings showed that 58 per cent of people who attended said they see a police officer or police community support officer patrolling in their area on a weekly or monthly basis.

Gary Kitching, Assistant Chief Constable, said: “One area which we would like to improve on is the number of police officers being seen patrolling in Suffolk. I would like to reiterate that this feedback is vital to how we shape the policing service for the future and we will be taking this information on board.”

At each meeting, residents had the opportunity to have a one-on-one discussion with a chief police officer and could take part in a question and answer session with Police Authority members and police officers.

The meetings also included a game show style voting session where the public gave their views on policing in the county.

The results show that of the 485 people who attended, 86pc feel very safe or fairly safe in the area where they live; 56pc rate the police in their area as excellent or good; 43pc of people said they would support an above inflation increase to their council tax for the police service and 49pc said they would support an in line with inflation increase.

n. Do you think improvements are needed in the police service? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or email eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk