Agenda item

The Panel was invited to consider the draft Annual Report of the West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) and determine whether it would wish to make any recommendations to the PCC for consideration. The 2018/19 Report provided a high-level overview of the PCC’s work over the last financial year.

Under Section 12 of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011, the PCC was required to report to the West Mercia Police and Crime Panel (PCP) on the exercise of his functions in each financial year. Specifically, the Annual Report should report on:

a)         the exercise of the PCC’s functions in each financial year, and

b)         the progress which had been made in the financial year in meeting the police and crime objectives in the PCC’s Police and Crime Plan

In accordance with the Act, the Panel was required to review the Report and to make any recommendations to the PCC for consideration. The PCC must then respond to any report or recommendations that the Panel made prior to publishing the final version of the Report.

The PCC introduced the Report and explained that the last year had built on the progress made in previous years, continuing with the principles of: Putting Victims and Survivors First, Building a more Secure, Reformed, Reassured and ultimately Safer West Mercia.

The PCC highlighted some of the areas of focus for the year:

Putting Victims and Survivors First

·         The launch of the Victim Advice Line, a dedicated victim support service in April 2019

·         The work taking place through the Drive Project to deter perpetrator behaviour

Building a more Secure West Mercia

·         The PCC’s Drug Strategy published in May 2019

·         Keeping the communities safe by managing the demand of the 999 service and working to improve the 101 service (acknowledging that there was still further work to be done)

·         The development of the Serious and Organised Crime (SOC) Strategy, which was being consulted on shortly

Reforming West Mercia

·         Continuing with the organisational reform and although the Strategic Alliance was coming to an end, negotiations would continue with Warwickshire to identify future alternative collaboration arrangements which would be mutually beneficial

·         Continuing with the new Policing Priorities by investing in the workforce, with a focus on well-being and sickness

·         Continued work around estates focusing on ensuring police buildings were fit for purpose and located where they were most effective

Reassuring West Mercia’s Communities

·         The PCC had continued his activity engaging with the community, working together with partners to be part of solutions to local issues, with ongoing support for SmartWater and focusing on rural and business crime.

During the opportunity for questions, the following main points were made:

·         A Member questioned the information provided as part of the ‘The Year in Numbers’ and asked if 62% of 101 calls were answered within 30 seconds, what was happening with the other 38% of calls.  The PCC explained that he received a weekly performance update and on average the wait time was 40 seconds with 10% of calls being abandoned. It was important to reduce the number of 101 calls by encouraging residents to use their local officer contacts. The PCC was less worried about the 101 performance and more concerned about the 999 response times

·         It was suggested that the response time to 999 calls was better last year, with 90% of 999 calls being answered in 10 seconds compared to 80% in 10 seconds this year. The PCC advised that there had been an improvement overall

·         It was suggested that it would be helpful if the 101 number gave an estimated wait time, the PCC acknowledged that was helpful but unfortunately, the current system was old and out of date and the Police didn’t have the more advanced technologies available to them yet

·         The PCC reiterated the importance of sharing the contact details of the local Police officers as the first point of contact for communities

·         A question was asked about whether knife crime was an increasing problem in West Mercia and whether there was a link with County Lines.  The PCC explained that it was a complex problem and that County Lines was an issue in West Mercia, with violent tactics being on the increase.  The focus for the Police was dealing with the criminality, but the change in Government focus to deal with it as a Public Health issue was good. There was, however still more to do around safeguarding those vulnerable people being exploited

·         The Deputy PCC (DPCC) explained funding was available for the Community Safety Partnerships (CSP’s) to use in the most appropriate way in their areas for youth knife crime eg Fearless Workers/Steer Clear.  In addition, The ACE’s agenda was about identifying those young people most likely to be exploited

·         A member queried whether West Mercia used ‘Stop and Search’ and whether its use of was increasing.  The PCC confirmed that it was a tactic used by West Mercia Police and considered useful. The Panel would be provided with some comparative data in respect of its usage

·         It was suggested that it would be helpful if the ‘Year in Numbers’ page included the statistics from the previous year, to show performance trends.  The PCC agreed to do this

·         A question was asked about the feasibility of future Strategic Alliance/s.  The PCC was clear that any future collaboration needed to be in the interests of both parties involved

·         The PCC was asked for his views on Community Resolution Orders and in response advised that they were useful but not for serious issues.  Data in respect of these would be provided in the next meeting’s performance summary report

·         A Member asked about how the PCC was tackling racial crime, hate crime, extremism and ensuring that the diversity of the workforce appropriately represented the make-up of society. The PCC confirmed that although the volume of hate and racial crime were low, there was more work to do around perception and satisfaction levels.  In respect of diversity of the workforce, gender diversity wasn’t too bad, but ethnicity needed to be improved, but would take a while due to low staff turnover in the Police. The Chief Constable was leading on a piece of work looking at how to improve the situation. Terrorism prevention was part of the Prevent Agenda and was primarily the responsibility of local councils, although the Police supported it.  The PCC urged councillors to encourage representatives from their local council to attend meetings of Serious and Organised Crime Joint Action Group (SOCJAG), which was a multi-agency group working at a local level to reduce the harm caused by serious and organised crime

·         The PCC was asked whether he was content with a 51% satisfaction rate for levels of local policing (as per the West Mercia Public Confidence and Perceptions Survey 2018/19) and how this compared nationally. The PCC confirmed that he was not satisfied with this statistic and wanted people to have confidence that the Police would be there when they needed them. The Chief Constable was confident that this would improve but the main problem was in the rural areas.  Investment had been made in additional Police Officers, which should help to improve the situation and more work was being done around the visibility of Police Officers.  In addition, this was being measured by the PCC, Town and Parish Councils carrying out surveys. 

·         It was noted that overall confidence in West Mercia Police had remained stable in quarter 4 at 85%).  The PCC agreed to check whether there was an update on the public confidence in the police statistics which were measured through the national Crime Survey for England and were as at September 2018

·         The PCC confirmed that the Chief Constable decided where additional Police Officer were placed.  The PCC would continue to provide the Chief Constable adequate resources to do his job

·         Against the Most Similar Group (MSG) of peer forces, West Mercia was currently ranked 8th out of the 8 forces, in line with the previous reporting period. The force’s ranking against all forces had decreased to 37th out of 42 forces. The PCC acknowledged that overall satisfaction levels were on a downward trend and advised that investment was being made to improve the situation

·         It was suggested that the Panel should have the opportunity to look at the Serious Organised Crime Strategy.  The PCC agreed to circulate the Strategy and update the Panel on the Consultation when the results where available.

In accordance with the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act, the PCC would be sent a report of the Panel following its consideration of the Annual Report.