The government is today setting out the next stage of its plans to reform the police service.

Under the plans, every neighbourhood in England and Wales will be promised its own neighbourhood policing teams within the next two years, with residents able to contact named local beat officers on their mobile phones and by email to deal with their complaints.

Interviewed in the Guardian, Home Office minister Hazel Blears says: "We need to change the nature of the encounter and the relationship between the citizen and the local service."