Meeting documents

To consider a report by the Police and Crime Commissioner. 

·        Members of the Panel are asked to review the performance of the Police and Crime Commissioner against objectives in the Police and Crime Plan.

·        To receive updates from those members appointed as the Leads/Champions for each pf the four ‘Pillar Themes’ in the PCCs Plan.

·        To raise any specific aspects for financial scrutiny and following-up on issues raised at the last meeting.

The quarterly monitoring report will also provide further information and specific focus on key topics that have been requested by the Panel as follows:-

Multi-Agency Working -  To consider the arrangements in place for the OPCC to ensure action and effect to ensure effective multi-agency working arrangements are in place to support delivery of the Police and Crime Plan.

Neighbourhood/Community Policing – To receive an overview of the arrangements to seek assurance on the adequacy and effectiveness of stakeholder engagement processes (e.g. communities, schools) and the delivery of outcomes in the Police and Crime Plan.

Levels of Knife Crime – To receive an update on the increase in knife crime.

The Panel considered a report which informed members of the progress against the Police and Crime Plan and Priorities 2017-21 in order to enable members to scrutinise activity and the achievement of outcomes.  The quarterly monitoring report also provided further information and specific focus on protecting people at risk of harm; multi-agency working; Neighbourhood/Community Policing; and the levels of knife crime, which members had asked for further information on.

Following a question from a member from Bournemouth Borough Council about road safety and what actions and activities would contribute to less lives being lost on the roads, a new website or speed cameras?  The PCC advised that his forward plan was to digitise speed cameras and had no plans to get rid of them.  In respect of cost and maintenance, only a third of cameras were run as their partners said they could not afford to service more.  Some cameras were in need of maintenance which was carried out by the Local Authority.  In respect of fines, the PCC noted that he would be happy to lobby to keep fines in the County and as traffic units were being merged agreement would need to be reached on a consistent approach to speeds and fees.  The money charged for the driver awareness schemes mostly stayed in Dorset and income of around £2m had been ringfenced by the PCC to be spent on road safety.

The PCC undertook to provide a brief update report on the digitisation of speed cameras, and wider funding arrangements for multi-agency road safety arrangements at the Panel’s next meeting on 1 February 2018.

Following a discussion about the PCC’s next problem solving forum it was felt the focus should be on fly tipping as this affected everyone in the County.

 Members of the PCP who were Leads/Champions for each of the ‘Pillar Themes’ in the PCC’s plan were invited to present their updates.

i)                 Pillar 4 - Transforming for the Future – Iain McVie

·        A brief update on drone evaluation and bodyworn cameras be added to the Forward Plan.

·        Despite a significant top slice of police funding concern being expressed, the Police ICT company had not delivered many items for Dorset – although 2 projects would be delivered, web storage for bodyworn cameras and video being offered.   The PCC undertook to write to the national lead PCC on this in order to provide a timely challenge using the figures referred to by the Independent Member.

·        Complaints – the PCC advised that with new legislation going through Parliament, the 2 bodies going forward would have to change. Changes would be coming in respect of measuring which would help address a more customer focus approach. He noted that a large percentage of complaints were bogged down in the mechanics and work was ongoing to change public perception. An update on this topic to be included in the Panel’s Forward Plan.

·        Communication and engagement in respect of the merger and how comfortable was the PCC with this in covering such a wide area? The PCC made reference to an area where 1 PCC looked after 3 counties and he had been re-elected so people didn’t feel he was too remote. With Devon, Cornwall and Dorset he didn’t feel there would be a need for several deputies and that 1 PCC would be sufficient, but the PCC recognised the geographic challenges that this change would bring.  

·        Customer Service Improvement Panel update (Cllr John Russell)

Cllr Russell referred to the most recent meeting feeling overall that there was a positive direction of travel.  It had been identified that there was one missing link and that was to get business representation on the Panel. An update on 101 performance was given, nearly half the calls received were judged as excellent and triage answers to calls were very snappy.

The PCC made reference to calls that were deemed as unacceptable and the action that was taken.  There was still a need to understand the high percentage of abandoned calls.   Some members expressed their continued dissatisfaction at the service, although feedback from other councillors elsewhere in Dorset was that the service had improved.  The PCC undertook to share the action plan with members and invited Cllr Smith from Bournemouth Borough Council to join the Customer Services Improvement Panel.

ii)                Pillar 3 - Supporting Victims, Witnesses and reducing Reoffending – Cllr Barbara Manuel / Cllr Bill Pipe

Cllr Manuel applauded all the initiatives taken in the report but had some concern about how all the outcomes would be measured e.g. fraud.  The PCC advised that he was about to launch a new website regarding fraud which hopefully would help this but accepted that some measures would be difficult to evaluate.

iii)              Pillar 2- Working with our Communities – Cllr Bernie Davis / Cllr Mohan Iyengar

·        Road safety -  different practices between the 2 forces highlighted in the report – is the balance of the work correct and is there a need to equate practices.

·        Cyber crime – thinking about how we can build on sharing awareness and competence in people understanding this area and perhaps move to people’s champions in this area?  The PCC felt the use of people champions was a good idea along with the use of family members.

·        In respect of other areas to be considered for future problem solving forums, Cllr Iyengar undertook to speak with the PCC outside of the meeting.

iv)              Pillar 1 - Protecting People at Risk and Harm – Cllr Andrew Kerby / Cllr Byron Quayle

·        In the absence of Cllr Kerby brief reference was made to the recent Modern Slavery seminar and Domestic Abuse Inquiry day.

Following a comment from a member about metrics, benchmarks, risk levels and measures being included in this report, the Chairman advised that this would form part of the next development stage of the report and had been discussed with the PCC.  The Director of Operations agreed that the next version of the report would have updated key performance indicators.  The PCC highlighted the potential difficulty of being signed up to a number of targets that the Police were not signed up to. However the PCC recognised the importance of additional information to assist in the evaluation and assessment to judge performance and undertook to make further progress by the Panels next meeting on 1 February 2018.

The Quarterly monitoring report also provided further information and specific focus on key topics that had been requested by the Panel; Protecting People at Risk of Harm; Multi-Agency Working; Neighbourhood/Community Policing; and the levels of knife crime.

Following a discussion about community policing in key town centre areas, the PCC advised that with a lower number of police officers and less funding it was important for people to speak with their MPs about the state of policing in Dorset, he felt it was clear that policing needed more investment.

In response to a question about the reduction of PCSOs and whether this was as a result of a cut in the budget, the PCC advised there was a slight reduction but if the cuts kept coming more police officers and PCSOs would be lost. One member asked if the PCC would encourage the Chief Constable to give additional powers to the PCSOs, which he undertook to review next year on behalf of the Panel.

In respect of the funding it was suggested that if members had improved sight of more detail on the costs taken out (e.g. top slicing) before the funding reached the OPCC it would give a better understanding.  The PCC welcomed this suggestion and agreed to review the presentation of this within the precept report in February 2018.  The PCC encouraged Panel members to lobby MPs to make the case of a need for increased funding.

Following a question from a member about an amnesty on knife crime, the PCC advised that this was an operational call but if knife crime continued to increase there could be a need to convene a scrutiny panel to investigate further.  Knife crimes in dwellings in Dorset were higher than the national average and officers were continuing to look into this and domestic abuse in more detail and undertook to report back to members.

One member made reference to Stop and Search and how Dorset had one of the highest stop and search ratios in the country for black people.  The PCC advised that he had recently taken over the chairmanship of the Stop and Search Panel to try to address this and would be issuing a press release on this area shortly.

The Chairman thanked the PCC for a very informative and detailed report.

Resolved

1. That the PCC undertook to raise with the Chief Constable next year the issue of giving additional powers to PCSOs.

2. The PCC undertook to share the action plan for the Customer Service Improvement Panel with members.

3. The PCC agreed to further development work to incorporate specific metrics, risk levels, benchmarks and measures into the future quarterly monitoring reports.

4. It was agreed to review the presentation of the precept report to highlight specifically the levels of funding ‘top slicing’ for national and other initiatives.