Agenda item

To receive the Police and Crime Commissioner’s draft Annual Report for 2019/20.

Members received a draft copy of the Commissioners Annual report for 2019-20 and were invited to raise comments and recommendations in accordance with Section 28(4) of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act.

The Chief Executive gave a brief overview of the content of the draft report and Members heard that:

·         The commitment to recruit an additional 94 officers, as outlined within the Commissioner’s precept proposal had been met. In total approximately 600 new officers would be recruited before the end of the year to meet the central government uplift target, the additional officers funded through residents precept contributions and to meet any in-year attrition. This represented a 10-fold increase on normal recruitment levels and the efforts taken by the Constabulary in delivering this level of recruitment, particularly with the outbreak of Covid-19, was acknowledged by the Chief Executive.

·         The Commissioner and his team were working alongside Hampshire Constabulary to support them in continuing to deliver effective and efficient policing throughout the pandemic.

·         An investigation into misconduct by a small number of officers at the Constabulary at was ongoing, with information on the process being taken and the misconduct hearings expected to be made publicly available by Hampshire Constabulary later that day.

·         The report highlighted how the projects outlined at and since the commencement of the Commissioner’s had delivered outcomes for local residents and enabled the PCC to reach into the communities he served.

In response to Members questions it was heard that:

·         Support was offered by the Victim Care Service to anyone who requested it. Anyone who was identified as a victim of crime was contacted, with detail of what the service could offer, and this was offered cohesively across the criminal justice system. Comments from the Members offered encouragement to continue be clearer about the offer and the benefits it could provide.

·         The Commissioner’s COMPASS meetings provided a valuable opportunity for the PCC and the Chief Constable to discuss issues raised by the public in a public forum. It was heard that, as well as being derived from direct contact with the PCC, questions were drawn from MP surgeries and from the PCC’s wider network. In response to Members challenge to make this opportunity more visible to the public, Members were invited to submit to the PCC any questions from their local residents or communities to be brought forth to a future session.

·         £16k was outlined within the report for supporting actions around rural crime and would pay for an analysist. This funding had been lobbied for by the Independent Advisory Group (IAG) and the analysist’s focus would be to develop better intelligence for the CountryWatch team to use in their approach to tackling rural crime.

·         Significant investment had been made in enabling restorative justice services to continue to operate digitally, since the outbreak of the pandemic.

·         Suggestions for best practise were shared nationally with other PCC’s via the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC)

·         The annual report would be produced digitally and made available online to enable as many people as possible to access it in the most cost efficient way. The Commissioner’s engagement team would seek to reach out to identified groups within the population of the policing area who couldn’t or hadn’t accessed the document. The report would also be shared with local MP’s and Council leaders, to be shared within their communities. It was further heard that the published version would contain a short executive summary and would have features to make it more accessible than the draft version presented to Members.

Members offered their congratulations for the success of the Cyber ambassador scheme in their delivery over the last year in keeping local young people safer online, during a time of increased use resulting from the global pandemic. The software developed in-house through this project had been recognised by global organisations such as Amazon, CISCO and Microsoft as a leading product for keeping children safe on line, with significant interest in supporting its further development.

A number of additional questions raised by Panel Members at the meeting were taken away for response after the meeting.

RESOLVED:

That the Panel receives the draft Annual Report of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire, reviews the document and makes any report or recommendation to the Commissioner, in line with Section 28(4) of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act.