Five new policing teams for city

Five new neighbourhood policing teams have been set up in east and south Belfast.

They are to work alongside existing police patrols, but their primary focus will be on working with local communities to tackle crime.

"They'll deal with anti-social behaviour, they'll deal with youths causing annoyance in the area," said Superintendent Mark Purdon.

"Those are the issues that really matter to communities."

Superintendent Purdon added that neighbourhood officers "because they're out on the streets day in daily, obviously they have a role to play in the prevention and the detection of crime".

"But more importantly neighbourhood officers are there to deal with the longer term problem-solving that is needed in communities."