Agenda item

Verbal update from Councillor Sarah Trotter.

Councillor Sarah Trotter provided the Committee with an update on the Lincolnshire Police and Crime Panel:

 

‘Since I last spoke to you, I have attended 2 meetings of the Police and Crime Panel, one in June and the other last month now held at East Lindsey District Council building, Horncastle.

 

For those of you new to the Rural and Communities OSC Committee and recently newly elected Councilors, I thought it would helpful to just briefly explain the roles and responsibilities of both the

 

-          Commissioner,

-          And the PCP & Chief Constable, currently Chris Howard.

Our current Police Commissioner for Lincolnshire Marc Jones is scrutinized and supported by the PCP made up of 10 Councilor’s from the County’s eight local authorities and two independent (co-opted members). 

 

1)    We can review the Commisioner’s decisions and have the opportunity to question him.

2)    We have the power of veto over any precept proposals, the choice of Chief Constable, and we are required to review the Police and Crime Plan before it is published. 

Marc Jones has the vital role in holding the Chief Constable to account for operational delivery on behalf of the people of Lincolnshire. 

 

The Chief Constable must answer to the Commissioner in terms of delivering efficient and effective local policing to the people of Lincolnshire, and the way resources and spending are managed, as well as ensuring that the force is contributing to ensuring that policing capabilities are available to address national crime threats and cross-border criminality.

 

The PCC in the June meeting presented a report that provided an update on the delivery of the Police and Crime Plan (2021-2025).  The report covering the period up to June 2023.

 

Commissioners Update

 

The report updates against each of the four ‘Key Principles’ within the Plan:

 

1)    Community Safety and Prevention in Partnership

2)    Listening, responding and being accountable

3)    Protecting and supporting victims and the vulnerable

4)    Policing that Works

This document is a lengthy read, but I have taken a snapshot of some of the information contained within: -

 

Community Safety and Prevention in Partnership

 

The PCC continues to support the local Environmental Crime Partnership. The Chair, Ayeisha Kirkham, a name you may recognise is the SKDC’s Public Protection Manager.

 

To name a few successful operations co-ordinated to reduce and prevent

 

Ø  fly-tipping and waste crime.

Example of partnership work and successful operations:-

 

Ø  Operation Clean Sweep – Intelligence led targeted action days of action coordinated with other key agencies such as DVLA and HMRC to disrupt and intervene against waste crime.

Ø  Operation Cyber Guardian – removal of illegal waste service advertising on social media & Operation Asgard, seizure of offender’s vehicles for forfeiture or destruction.

Ø  The county-wide review of CCTV commissioned by the PCC. This will include a comprehensive review of the existing provision and consideration of opportunities around future models. I hopefully can report back to the committee in due course.

Listening, responding and being accountable

 

Ø  The PCC has arrangements in place with District Council colleagues to ensure information is shared with the public about how the precept element of their Council tax is spent.

Ø  During the period of January to April 2023 the Safer Together Team have attended over 100 meetings, engagement sessions and events across Lincolnshire. The team have also been attending meetings with Just Lincolnshire, Parish Councils, Lincoln BIG and South Kesteven Partnerships to hear the views of communities through partnerships.

Protecting and supporting victims and the vulnerable Activity in the last Quarter

 

Ø  As of 1st April 2023, the newly commissioned Domestic Abuse Specialist Service commenced in Lincolnshire has secured funding from the Ministry of Justice to recruit an additional one and half sexual violence advisor posts in 23/24, with a further 3 posts for 24/25 (subject to the fulfilment of posts in 23/24).

Ø  The MoJ has confirmed that the funding bid submitted for Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Interventions was unsuccessful. The PCC is working with partners to identify alternative funding to deliver a perpetrator behaviour change programme.

Policing that Works Activity in the last Quarter

 

The Strategic Policing requirement (SPR) sets out the Home Secretary's view of what the current national threats are. This includes:-

 

· violence against women and girls

· terrorism

· serious and organised crime

· a national cyber incident

· child sexual abuse

· public disorder

· civil emergencies

Precept Commitments

 

The PCC made a number of commitments in relation to the use of the extra council tax raised through the precept from April 2023. These are summarised below and progress against delivery of these commitments will be reported each quarter which I will report back to this committee.

 

1)      Maintaining police officer numbers; Retaining our police officer numbers at 1,186, bolstering local neighbourhood teams, preventing and tackling crime, and protecting our communities.

2)      Extra officers and staff into specialist sexual assault/abuse units; Commitment to greater protection and justice for children and adults across Lincolnshire who experience some of the most harmful crimes.

3)      Improving 101 call response times; Lincolnshire has one of the best 999 answering records in England. An additional 15 call handlers will boost the 101 service to give residents the service they deserve.

4)      Making our roads safer; Investment in the Serious Collisions Investigation Unit will help deliver crucial answers and justice to victims and families of tragic incidents on our roads.

5)      Increasing community confidence; We are determined to keep the confidence of the public and raise it even further with investment into the Professional Standards Department to maintain and raise standards of conduct and behaviour within the service.

6)      More officers on shift when you need them; Investment in a revised deployment model to place more officers on duty in peak demand periods thereby improving incident response times.

A presentation from Chief Superintendent Martyn Parker

 

-          seconded to Lincolnshire County Council as Assistant Director of Public Protection

-          and Chair for Safer Lincolnshire Partnership Strategy Board.

The safer Lincolnshire Partnership has the following statutory duties

·       To prepare and implement a partnership plan that sets out a strategy for the reduction of reoffending, crime and disorder, combating substance misuse, understand serious violence, community engagement and addressing he priorities identified in the strategic assessment.

·       To set-up protocols and systems for information sharing

·       To regularly engage and consult with the public about their community safety priorities and issues

·       To hold one or more public meetings during each year

·       To commission Domestic Homocide Reviews following notifications from Police of a domestic homicide

 

The recommendation for the report was to enable the panel to effectively scrutinize the Commissioner’s performance in delivering his community safety and crime responsibilities.

 

It was concluded, there is a good working relationship between the PCC and the SLP, his office provides a high level of representation at SLP Meetings at a strategic and operational level.  Members of the Office of the PCC team engage in regular communication with the team, supporting the SLP to progress workstreams.  Examples of good working practices can be found within the Safer Lincolnshire Partnership report Annual Report 2022-23 including Anti-Social Behaviour Co-ordination working with Substance Misuse & reducing reoffending.’

 

Councillor Phil Dilks shared concerns around the latest cuts to the Police Community Support Officers (PCSO’s) from 91 to 50 across the County. There were 150 PCSO’s across the County when the current Police Crime Commissioners took over around 7 years ago.

 

Members thanked Councillor Trotter for her thorough presentation.

 

In response to concerns received, Councillor Sarah Trotter shared a response received from the Police Crime Commissioner:

 

‘It is always the case that policing is changing and must respond to evermore risk and complex challenges placed upon them, as well as attending to the personal issue of meeting a growing demand of the service.

 

The Chief Constable must decide how these challenges will be met, this includes the operation choice to realign £2 million from the PCSO budget to other important policing roles that will keep our communities safe. He was spending plans included prioritising warranted Police Officer numbers to ensure crime can be prevented and tackled:

 

·       9 Police Staff in the Safeguarding Hub to ensure effective safeguarding management of domestic violence, disclosure scheme, information sharing with relevant partners with swift referrals to the protecting vulnerable people unit.

·       12 additional detectives in the PVP unit to protect the most vulnerable children and adults in our communities.

·       15 call takers into the force control room to improve the 101-call handling service. Investing in a serious collisions investigation unit to improve the safety of Lincolnshire roads and delivery of justice to victims.

·       3 additional Officers and 2 Police Staff in the professional standards department to increase community confidence.

·       13 additional community managers who are warranted Officers going into the Neighbourhood Policing Teams to invest in learning and development to ensure our Officers and Staff are equipped with skills needed in developing high quality services to our communities.

 

Following a review of the Officer deployment model, investment in a revised model to place more Officers on duty in peak demand periods, therefore, improving incident response times. The Chief Constable needs to make strategic choices based on his expert knowledge and experience, to ensure he has the right resources in the right place to keep communities safe and is right to allow the flexibility to adapt his workforce to meet the challenge of tackling crime in the modern world. The only way these investments and improvement in service for our community can be achieved is by delivering a balanced budget.

 

It is rightly a matter for the Chief Constable to use the operational judgement to keep our communities safe as possible and to decide the balance between unwarranted staff roles and warranted Officers.’

 

It was queried as to whether the number of Police Officers at 1186, was a new figure, an increase or decrease in the number of Officers.

 

The number of Police Officers at 1186 was an aspirational figure. It was common for Police Officers to move forces and gain promotions.

 

A query was raised in relation to the request of more Police Officer presence in Stamford.

 

It was further queried as to whether there were more or less Police Officer’s on the streets in comparison to 2022. 

 

Coucillor Sarah Trotter agreed to take any operational queries back to the Police and Crime Commissioner for an accurate answer.