Agenda item

To receive a report from the Commissioner detailing her draft Police and Crime Plan and priorities for the period 2021-2024.

The Commissioner’s ‘More Police Safer Streets’ Draft Police and Crime Plan was introduced by the Chief Executive who explained that the Plan set out the Commissioner’s strategic direction for the period 2021-2024.

The Commissioner noted that an initial draft of the Plan had been shared with the Panel on 20 August and that following initial comments from Members of the Panel and an 8 week consultation, which had received 7336 responses, the final draft was presented for the Panel’s consideration.

Members heard that:

·         The plan would be one of the most accessible Police and Crime Plans nationally and was considered a living document which would evolve and grow over the period to 2024.

·         The layout of the plan was designed to clearly inform residents what the Commissioner would deliver and the outcomes to be achieved.

·         Alongside the Plan document, which would be available both electronically and in print, there would be a microsite, which would go live once feedback on the draft plan had been received from the Panel. The microsite was intended to be very interactive and contained embedded videos to make the plan more accessible. The Commissioner shared a video which featured the Chief Constable, explaining that the video would be one of those available to view on the microsite.

·         The response to the Police and Crime Plan consultation was the highest to date and along with seven focus groups, the OPCC had used YouGov to ensure responses were provided across all districts within the policing area and were representative of views from a diverse range of communities.

·         The Commissioner had been surprised by the lack of priority given to call handling within the survey responses and felt this was mostly likely driven by a wording issue. The Commissioner had therefore sought to make clearer within the final draft plan what this priority meant.

Members congratulated the Commissioner on the clarity of the content within the plan and its accessibility and the level of public engagement with the consultation.

Cllr Margot Power joined the meeting at this point.

In response to Members questions it was heard that:

·         Following public feedback, wording within the Plan had been adapted to ensure the content was clearer and some of the imagery had been updated.

·         The Commissioner and her team had worked with the Victim Care Service to seek feedback on the draft plan from victims of crime in a way which was sensitive to their needs. It was further noted that a number of victims had engaged directly with the survey, through signing up for inclusion in the Commissioner’s distribution lists.

·         Along with the Panel, the Commissioner had shared an early draft of the Plan with Community Safety Partnerships, Hampshire Constabulary and health partners for feedback on the development of the Plan.

·         The figure of 600 more police officers was based on the establishment as at January 2020.

·         There was a shortage of police detectives at a national level as well as locally. Hampshire Constabulary were carrying a 40% vacancy rate in Investigations Command and the Commissioner had been actively supporting the Chief Constable in enhancing recruitment activity in a bid to increase detective capacity.

·         In response to the Panel’s request, baseline establishment figures for Hampshire Constabulary since 2010 would be shared with the Panel following the meeting, along with an update on the diversity of the force.

·         The Commissioner had spoken with the Chief Constable regarding the vetting of new recruits, and whilst updates to national vetting guidance  were awaited, the Chief Constable provided assurances that the current vetting used in Hampshire was comprehensive and in line with other policing areas.

·         Hampshire Constabulary had put forward a bid to the Commissioner to increase in staff numbers in the Professional Standards Department (PSD) to meet any future demand resulting from the increased focus, at a national level, on police officer conduct. In response to Members comments the Commissioner offered to provide an update to a future meeting on how appropriate standards of behaviour were being set with new recruits to the force.

·         Resulting from the Constabulary’s need to move to a high-harm model in recent years, public dissatisfaction existed around the response to  medium-low level crimes. The Commissioner had identified that whilst the Constabulary were taking action in respect of these reports, they weren’t feeding this information back to those reporting crimes which had in turn impacted on confidence in policing. The Commissioner hoped to develop a new crime reporting app which would enable this feedback to be given. Further, once the additional 600 officers were fully operational, the Commissioner would be challenging the Constabulary to deliver an enhanced preventative approach in communities and to tackle more lower harm concerns.

·         The Commissioner agreed that more attention could have been drawn in the plan to enhancing public confidence in policing, however it was an area of focus and actions to address this included holding the COPS sessions.

·         Third Party Reporting Centres were a joint initiative between the OPCC and Hampshire Constabulary who regularly reviewed the coverage, numbers of reports being received and feedback from victims of crime.

·         Should central funding for the Violence Reduction Centres (VRU’s) be cut or discontinued the Commissioner would look at how funding could be maintained locally. Whilst this would likely result to cuts in other services, the Commissioner recognised that the Constabulary would want maintain the VRU’s as an effective approach in addressing high risk offending related to knife and gun crime.

·         Policing powers were limited if there wasn’t an appropriate space to signpost those using unauthorised encampments towards. The Commissioner was engaging with all councils, outside of the IOW where the issue was less of a concern, to find a solution which would be of benefit to all.

·         The Commissioner was cognisant of the pledges made when the previous precept was set and was having ongoing conversations with the Constabulary regarding the delivery of these.

·         The Commissioner’s Office had secured £460,000 of funding from the Ministry of Justice to be spent on trauma informed approaches by the end of March 2022. Training was planned for 1600 professionals from across Hampshire and the IOW in the application of trauma informed approaches.

·         Operation Magenta, which was investigating historical deaths at Gosport War Memorial Hospital, required funding from the Commissioner in the region of £2m per year for the next three years, with the remainder of the funding being covered by the Home Office due to the scale of the number of cases involved. Members heard that the Commissioner had written to the Home Secretary and Home Office regarding the sustainability of local funding for the investigation.

·         Members highlighted that the time period the plan was to cover was not transparent within the document itself.

RESOLVED:

That the Panel reviews the draft Police and Crime Plan and makes such report and recommendations upon it as the Panel considers appropriate.