Agenda item

The Panel considered a report of the Chief Finance Officer concerning the Police and Crime Commissioner’s (PCC) first year in office. A copy of the report, marked “Agenda Item 4” is filed with these minutes.

The Chairman welcomed the PCC, his Chief Executive (CEO) and Chief Finance Officer (CFO) to the meeting to introduce the paper. In doing so, the following principal points were made:

·                The first year had been largely a transitional process. Staff continued to be recruited to the PCC’s office to ensure the successful delivery of the Police and Crime Plan (PC Plan);

·                Much had been learnt thus far about the partnership work the Police were engaged in. Community Safety was one area highlighted as a success;

·                Leicestershire Police continued to lead the mental health agenda nationally. The PCC hoped that further integration would take place with Public Health, including taking a more active role on the Health and Wellbeing Board;

·                Regional collaboration with other forces was viewed as a priority;

·                The Office for the PCC (OPCC) would be reconfigured with a budget reduction of £15,000;

·                Leicestershire was the first in the country to start a “Youth Commissioning” pilot consisting of a group of youths with varied backgrounds advising on priority issues for young people. This work would feed into areas such as training for Police Officers;

·                The OPCC wished to carry out better consultation with the public in future. A suggestion was made that it might be possible for the OPCC to collaborate with local authorities when consulting on issues such as council tax and the precept;

·                The impending independent review of the Force’s PR and communication function would decide under whose control this function would sit in future. It currently sat within the Chief Constable’s control.

In response to the questions of Panel members, the following points were noted:

·                The overall crime statistic for the force area was showing an increase of 2.8%, which was recognised as a concern. Despite this being a trend nationally, the PCC highlighted that, in 2012, crime had a seen a dramatic reduction, which had meant that a further fall would have been challenging to achieve. The statistic reflected an increase in “volume” crimes, such as theft from cars, shoplifting, theft of bicycles and burglaries. In response to a question as to whether this increase could relate to the economic climate and its impact on the population, the PCC referred to an increase in driving away from garages without having paid for fuel;

·                Operation Tiger was a direct reaction to the increase in volume crime, with a focus on a visible police presence tackling issues that were of high concern to communities. Operation Tiger would continue for the foreseeable future, though possibly with fewer officers. The part the public could play in tackling crime was highlighted;

·                The PCC had received assurances from the Chief Constable that the Force was doing all it could to combat increases in rural crime in areas such as Melton;

·                Funds were issued via the PCC Grant (paragraph 16 d. of the report refers) according to the priorities of the PC Plan. An example was given of a scheme called The Friends of Holly Hayes Wood, which had recently received grant funding to enable it to continue a programme training people who were not in employment, education or training to acquire skills-based educational opportunities in areas such as woodland management and dry stone walling;

·                The innovation grant had been successful in bringing forward ideas to combat crime. An example was given of an app to combat cyber bullying. It was fully intended to continue this sort of grant initiative into 2014/15;

·                The budget saving target of £23 million would be very challenging. It was hoped to achieve much of this through a change programme targeting towards a leaner force, with an increased focus on the use of IT and reduced bureaucracy. One example was given of taking statements by the use of video cameras, rather than taking hand-written statements;

·                The PCC was congratulated on his management of the police presence at large scale events such as the Diwali celebrations in Leicester City during September;

·                It was stressed that the crime reduction target could be made more difficult to achieve by the drive to increase the accuracy of crime reporting. An example was given where a number of car crimes on a street may, in the past, have been reported as one crime in order to save police time;

·                The PCC considered that it was difficult to relate increases in crime to the actions of individual PCCs as much would depend upon local circumstances. It was pointed out that this made the task of the PCPs in assessing the performance of PCCs on a comparative basis more difficult;

·                The PCC was not willing to give an assurance that crime levels would fall during the remaining three years of his tenure, though he assured the Panel that he would do everything within his power to ensure that it would.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.