Agenda item

The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) introduced the draft Serious and Organised Crime (SOC) Strategy and the PCC’s Policy Officer went on to explain the process that the Strategy had been through to date, this included:

·         the Consultation from 9 July - 15 August 2019 (including this Panel)

·         the publicity around it, via the PCC’s website, the West Mercia Police website, a press release to all media outlets across West Mercia, social media (Facebook and Twitter) and an email to key stakeholders and partners including: West Mercia Police, Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs), Serious and Organised Crime Joint Action Groups (SOCJAGs), Local Authorities, NHS, Public Health and Prisons & Probation.

The Panel was advised that one formal response to the Consultation was received during the consultation period. The response was submitted on behalf of Telford and Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and was welcomed by the PCC, who had responded to it accordingly. This meeting was a further opportunity for the Panel to provide the PCC with comments for consideration.

During the discussion, the following main points were made:

·         A Member suggested that if the Police were aware of where SOC Groups were operating, then it should follow that more criminals were apprehended. The Assistant Chief Constable advised that SOC was very complex and sometimes it was difficult to dismantle and disrupt activity as some groups were deep seated. However, when criminals were identified they were tackled

·         It was confirmed that the underlying theme of the Strategy was preventing the problem at source, this included looking at socio and demographic factors including school exclusions

·         The Strategy stated that almost 70% of Organised Crime Groups in operation in West Mercia were involved in the illicit drug trade. A Member questioned whether there was an awareness amongst recreational drug users of the knock-on impact of their drug use. The PCC explained that one of the recommendations related to drug awareness raising

·         It was reported that as part of the recent government spending round, the PCC welcomed the additional funding proposed for tackling crime and was pleased that it was a government priority. The detail would be available around mid-December

·         A Member expressed concern that the rate of re-offending for the SOC cohort was significant, with almost half of all serious and organised criminals re-offending within a year of release from custody.  The PCC was asked if the problem was insurmountable and explained that the policy was to deal with the problem at source and support the rehabilitation of criminals too

·         It was suggested that it would be helpful if the Strategy was monitored with a separate performance framework.  The Policy Officer confirmed that plans were in place for this and the framework would be put together over the next few weeks

·         It was further suggested that some of the recommendations should be strengthened to replace ‘could’ with ‘would’ or ‘will’.  The PCC agreed to take this suggestion forward

·         The rise in the number of cases of child sexual exploitation (CSE) was a worrying trend and was a focus of the Strategy.  The DPCC advised that there were recommendations around working with partners (particularly education and Ofsted) to engage with and support as many excluded children as possible and also provide diversionary activities.  In addition, there was a Home Office Strategic Framework Review relating to CSE, two key areas of which were the illicit drugs market and school exclusion

·         A Member questioned whether it was good practice to have police community support officer’s (PCSO) on the boards of School Governing Bodies.  The PCC advised that all neighbourhoods had local policing teams which should have links with schools in their area, but may not necessarily have PCSO’s appointed to their governing bodies

·         The PCC agreed with the suggestion that cases seemed to move slowly through the criminal justice system and agreed to look at the key performance indicators (KPI’s) in respect of this and report back to the Panel

·         The ACC confirmed that there were internal systems in place to identify and deal with any internal criminal activity

·         Recommendation 8 about the PCC using his influence to engage with businesses at all levels, particularly those targeted by OCGs, to promote crime reduction, prevent re-victimisation and reduce demand on the police was referred to. It was suggested that local businesses suffered continuous attempts of fraud, which were usually reported to Action Fraud UK, which it was suggested was not usually effective and that the problem would be better dealt with locally.  The PCC agreed that this was an issue that required further discussion about how those causing most harm were dealt with.  It was noted that Action Fraud was a reporting centre and didn’t investigate specific crime but passed them back to the police.

In summary, it was agreed that:

·         the performance framework for the SOC Strategy would be bought back to the Panel

·         the recommendations would be strengthened to replace ‘could’ with ‘would’ or ‘will’

·         The PCC would look at the KPI’s in respect of the pace that cases moved through the criminal justice system and report back to the Panel.