Agenda item

The Police and Crime Panel is required to make a report or recommendations on the Annual Report to the Commissioner.

The Panel considered the PCC’s Annual Report. A copy of the report, marked “Agenda Item 6” is filed with these minutes. The Panel was required as part of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act to consider and comment on the PCC’s Annual Report.

Arising from a discussion on the contents of the Annual Report, the following comments were noted:

·                The Annual Report was more detailed report than the previous iteration, in response to the comments made by the Panel last year;

·                The geographical spread of resources to the neighbourhood police teams and CSPs aimed to prioritise against risk and ensure a consistent neighbourhood presence was in place across the Force area;

·                The PCC continued to commission outcomes in support of the Police and Crime Plan with his annual budget of between £2.9 and £3.8 million. All commissioning activity was set out on the PCC’s website. It was important to get partners’ views on the new Commissioning Framework to ensure that the right services were being commissioned in the right areas;

·                The strategic priority to achieve a reduction in domestic burglary offences by 13% was not being achieved – crimes had increased by 6.7% (3935 offences to 4199). The PCC was not happy that this situation had not yet been brought under control. He wanted to maintain ambitious targets to increase public confidence. It remained a focus of the Force to target a reduction in this area;

·                The strategic priority to reduce violence against a person with injury by 2% was not being achieved – crime had increased by 15.7% (4365 offences to 5052). Theft from and of vehicles had also seen an increase. Were crimes to rise in these categories again next year, the PCC would regard the upturn in crime as a “trend”;

·                The Chief Constable stated that the British Crime Survey showed a reduction in crime nationally, but that this might not be the case for “recorded crime”. He further stated that it did not include a significant sample from the Leicester Police Force area. However, the Office of Crime and Statistics showed that, last year, there was a national decrease in police recorded crimes and that this was backed up by the statistics in the British Crime Survey. The PCC did not regard Leicestershire’s crime statistics as a “disaster” though he acknowledged that, at present, the figure showed that performance was not going in the right direction. The Chief Constable stated that he had seen more recent statistics that showed that some force areas were seeing an increase in recorded crime, particularly in the north of the country;

·                It was recognised that it might be helpful to include some case studies and statistics in future Annual Reports around substance abuse and how many people had been helped through treatment;

·                The setting of high targets was stressed as a possible demotivating factor for police staff. It was felt that achievable, yet challenging, targets were required;

·                The formal method of measuring crime detection rates had changed nationally because of a perception that the previous measuring method led to some forces “chasing” detections. The new method would hopefully lead to the best outcome for the victim;

·                There was an absence of recognition in the Annual Report for the diversity and complex nature of the City, particularly in regard to engagement. Furthermore, there were specific crimes which affected specific communities which it was felt should be better taken account of. The restructuring of the Police PR and communication function (as referred to in Minute 80) would hopefully enable better engagement with non-English speaking communities and the “hard to reach”;

·                The one-to-one meetings between the PCC and the Chief Constable were minuted meetings, though they were not open to the public. The Strategic Assurance Board was a formal public body that enabled the public to access information on performance;

·                Victim satisfaction rates had either matched or exceeded targets throughout all strategic priorities. The Panel welcomed this news;

·                It was felt that it would be helpful to indicate in the Annual Report where a small number of criminals were committing large numbers of crimes to give a more balanced picture;

·                Monitoring of the progress made through the Mental Health Triage Car was done through the Strategic Partnership Board and the NHS Partnership Trust. At present, there was no case to add another car. The present car dealt with around 200 incidents per month.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the PCC’s Annual Report be approved, subject to the comments made by the Panel;

(b)       That the comments made by the Panel form a report to be submitted to the Commissioner for his information.