Hayley MacePolice in Suffolk are being given more freedom to deal with low-level crimes within the community in a bid to improve public confidence and cut down on paperwork.Hayley Mace

Police in Suffolk are being given more freedom to deal with low-level crimes within the community in a bid to improve public confidence and cut down on paperwork.

More than 850 frontline officers and police staff in the county have been trained over recent months to use community resolutions and the scheme has now been rolled out across all of Suffolk.

The project gives police officers the chance to work with victims, offenders and the wider community to come up with suitable ways of dealing with crime, including simple apologies or financial compensation.

A report to Suffolk police authority, which will be discussed at a meeting on Friday, showed that community resolutions have been used 405 times in Suffolk since September, with 58 of those in Waveney, 48 in Suffolk Coastal, 36 in Forest Heath and 24 in Mid Suffolk.

In February alone, 151 community resolutions were used, accounting for 4.5pc of total crime in the county.

They have been used following a range of crimes, including criminal damage, shoplifting, theft and public order offences.

The report said: 'Community resolution has been closely linked to increasing public confidence through improved victim satisfaction and staff morale.

'As an additional benefit, community resolutions are less bureaucratic than alternative criminal justice outcomes, and so officers and staff take less time dealing with crimes allowing an improved focus on quality of service to the public.'

It continued: 'Community resolutions are designed to empower staff to use their professional judgement to 'do the right thing', and as such are linked to increased staff morale.'

The idea of using 'restorative practices' rather than criminal proceedings is also being used to tackle road traffic offences in Suffolk.

The force has just launched a new education course aimed at drivers who are caught using a mobile phone while driving, and officers are also use a similar scheme to allow motorists to fix defects on their cars to make them safer rather than face prosecution.