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Crime and the fear of crime have a devastating effect on communities. In 1997 we decided to deal with the problems on one estate in the west end of Newcastle by employing our "own" police officers.

Ask the residents
Firstly discuss the problem with the residents who are affected. What is important to them, what would make them feel safer? Our residents told us that an increased, visible and constant police presence on the streets would help to drive the criminals away and increase their confidence in the police.

The next step is to contact your local police authority. As we were the first housing association to investigate having our own police, there were no rules on how to go about it, so we dealt with everything on a local and informal basis. Get your regional director to contact the police area commander and discuss putting together a proposal for "employing" a couple of police exclusively for your estate.

If the police think the idea is feasible then you should bring the area housing manager and a member of the tenancy enforcement team into the discussions to thrash out details, such as how many people you want and the costs involved.

You will also have to consider: who will be the officers' line manager – the housing association/council or the police? What hours will they work? Where will they be based – on the estate or somewhere else?

When we entered into discussions we hit a hurdle straightaway as concerns were expressed that policing shouldn't just be for those who could afford to pay for it. So we agreed to pay £70,000 a year for two officers, one male and one female.

The officers' brief
Once you have got your officers, work out exactly what they will do. Tenants may be sceptical, but the personalities of the officers involved will often help break down the initial barriers. To lend more credibility, their brief should be to:

• get involved with the community, especially children
  
• identify the policing priorities of residents and housing staff and offer a personalised service
  
• identify and respond to emergency problems in a proactive manner
  
• look to the long-term solutions that are needed to improve the estate.

Also consider …
Using the officers to take children to local schools so that they don't play truant, and ensure that anyone involved in causing graffiti is also involved in cleaning it up.

Get officers to attend residents' meetings as well as maintaining a high profile around the streets.

On our estate, as a direct result, we saw a drop in crime, "problem" tenants left, the high turnover of tenants reduced and the community became more stable.

The future
You may not always need the same number of officers you started with. When we set up this scheme we agreed to fund it for two years, but it soon became clear that the community had benefited greatly from it.

Funding has continued but, because of the project's initial success, crime is now almost non-existent so the presence has been reduced to one police officer only. Now, she even spends time in other areas where we have properties. She still carries out normal police duties but, having built up good relationships on the estate, she also carries out tenancy checks with our staff, works with our tenancy enforcement team, and advises tenants on security issues.

The lesson we have learned is that people involved in criminal activity cannot cope with a sustained police presence.

As a result, we now have a more settled and virtually crime-free estate.