Agenda item

The Panel received an update on the activity undertaken by the PCC in support of his Safer West Mercia Plan and an update on police performance.

The PCC highlighted the following points from his report:

·         The PCC had been successful in a £650,000 bid to deliver the Complex Care Pathfinder to support victims of sexual violence, which he highlighted would make a huge difference.

·         As part of the Government’s Safer Streets Five initiative (SS5), the PCC had bid successfully for nearly £1m to fund a range of projects designed to tackle violence against women and girls, anti-social behaviour and neighbourhood crime in 2023/24 and 2024/25. The Panel was informed that as a result of budgetary pressures within Government, the funding for 2024/25 had now been reduced by £180k, but the PCC remained confident that partnership working would still enable the SS5 initiatives to be delivered with minimal impact.

·         The Road Safety Grant initiative had been relaunched for a second round, with applications now closed. The PCC agreed to report back to the Panel on how these monies had been deployed.

·         In respect of the criminal justice system, the Panel was informed that witness attendance rates remained high at 86%, which was above the regional and national average. The PCC also highlighted that West Mercia was the 6th highest in the country for guilty pleas at first hearing in the Crown Court.

·         The Community Charter had been established 3 years ago, and the PCC advised that a review would be carried out this year to establish what was being delivered in terms of the key pledges the charter contained. 

During the discussion, the following main points were made:

·         A Member expressed frustration that the performance data linked in the report was for Quarter 2, rather than Quarter 3, thereby not enabling  recent progress to be checked, for instance on the 101 response times. The PCC explained that unfortunately the timing of the meeting had meant the Quarter 3 data was unable to be incorporated, but that this data would be published shortly on the website and details would be forwarded to the Panel. In terms of response times for 101 calls, it was confirmed that there had been some improvement, but still some further progress needed. The ACC reported that as at 4 February,  74% of 101 calls were answered within 4 minutes and 50% in less than 30 seconds, and that 86% of 999 calls had been answered within 10 seconds. He reported that since the introduction of the switchboard, the abandonment of calls had reduced considerably. In relation to abandoned calls, a Member suggested that the message received when calling 101 should be checked and streamlined if possible, as there was a long-winded message to listen to before the phone rang the service itself. The PCC also highlighted that performance data on the website was now being updated each month. In response to a query, he advised that this was not currently showing any previous data to enable trends to be viewed. He had been considering various ways of presenting this and would seek the Panel’s input at the next meeting.

·         The challenges presented by retail crime were raised by a Member and it was queried whether sufficient communication was taking place with individual retailers. The PCC assured the Panel that the Police were committed to enhanced visibility of Officers in the retail environment with dedicated town centre teams. It was recognised that retail theft was usually linked to other offending behaviour, and it was important to get to the root cause of this. The Panel was also informed of the important work funded by the Police, which was ongoing in conjunction with companies to ensure that their retail environments were set up appropriately. In response to a comment about the importance of focussing on the neighbourhood level of retail crime, the PCC assured the Panel that all levels of crime were unacceptable, and it was important to ensure that the right response was taken in response to all retail crime, importantly working closely with all the retailers in doing so.

·         With regard to the information supplied on combatting drugs partnerships, a Member queried whether there was performance data for this area. The PCC advised that a performance dashboard was in the process of being developed. In the meantime, the ACC advised that there was some detailed information relating to the effectiveness of County Lines activity, which could be circulated to the Panel for information.

·         A Member suggested that for the next Panel meeting, it would be helpful to review where the KPI’s that the Panel currently received were located in reports, to ensure that going forward they were positioned together in the most effective way for the Panel to be able to easily access and monitor. The PCC was happy to present the information however it suited the Panel best and suggested this could be looked at by the Officers in advance of the next Panel. In response to a suggestion by another Member, it was agreed that developments in preventing cybercrime and artificial intelligence would be incorporated into the performance report.

·         The increase in crime levels in rural areas was raised, particularly with respect to theft from farms and the protection available to farmers to protect their properties and equipment. The PCC advised that preventative measures were important, and that the smart water used to mark equipment had proved to be an effective system to help the Police to identify some of these criminals. In response to a general question as to whether rural crime was being sufficiently addressed, the PCC explained that the majority of crime that took place in rural areas was not specifically rural crime, as residents in those areas were subjected to the same crimes as all other areas, such as domestic abuse and online exploitation. Therefore, police activity focussing on these crimes benefitted residents in  all areas. The Panel felt that an update report specifically on rural crime would be helpful and timely and it was agreed that this would be added to the Panel’s Work Programme.