Agenda item

To receive a quarterly update from the Police and Crime Commissioner detailing delivery against his Police and Crime Plan.

An overview of the previous meeting of the Plan Working Group was provided by Cllr Jan Warwick. Cllr Warwick explained that Members of the working group, had scrutinised information presented by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC). During the meeting Members of the working group were pleased to hear about progress made against GDPR implementation and to learn about how Restorative Justice Films were being used. Members also heard that the working group had raised concern that the appointment of a new Rural Lead Staff officer had not yet been agreed, and as a result action to be taken following the recommendations of the Panel’s Rural Crime proactive scrutiny had been delayed.

Members then received a verbal presentation from the Commissioner, setting out an update on delivery against the Police and Crime Plan 2016-2021 (see Item 9 in the Minute Book). The Panel also received a video presentation on the recent Safer Together Event, Eastern Police Investigation Centre topping out ceremony and other local events that had taken place since the last Panel meeting, as well as an update on the work of the Youth Commission.

During the presentations Members heard:

• Progress made by the OPCC against compliance with GDPR requirements was on track, but had required significant resource from the office to support the implementation.
• Hampshire and the Isle of Wight was regarded as a national leader in the use of Restorative Justice (RJ) practices. The Commissioner was clear in his intention to continue to push boundaries in the use of RJ, and that, despite the costs involved, felt RJ delivered real value in supporting victims and reducing reoffending.
• Some projects within the delivery plan had been marked as complete at the end of the scoping phase. One example given was the use of the Barnahus Model. Whilst this project was currently on hold following the completion of scoping, the Commissioner had asked the Chief Constable to continue to look at the feasibility of its use with criminal justice partners.
• The Commissioner and his office were well engaged in steps to prevent FGM and were supporting plans to further engage communities through making the information needed by those effected both clear to understand and readily available.
• A recently added project would focus upon University collaboration and engaging students in the analysis of data on behalf of the OPCC. It was heard that this would provide practical work experience for students, who may go on to be influential in community safety in the future, and also allowed the OPCC to analyse more data with little financial cost.
• The Commissioner committed not to have staff officer or police resource within his office when they can provide better delivery to front line policing. The previous staff officer who had led on rural priorities had been returned back to policing and the OPCC were looking to incorporate rural priorities into the wider community strategy. The Commissioner further explained that engagement was also being undertaken with Neighbourhood Watch, to deliver rural priorities in partnership, and that the Commissioner had asked the Chief Constable to prioritise protecting the dedicated resource for rural crime within the force.

In response to questions, the Panel heard:

• Serious violent crimes were a growing concern.
• Areas of the OPCC’s work which look beyond policing were focussed on reducing the impact on policing demand and making communities safer through reducing the risk of people becoming victims of crime.
• The OPCC was rolling out the use of SafetyNet to partners in line with GDPR requirements and 60 organisations had been engaged to date.
• The cyber ambassadors project was now complete, the pilot was in use and working with young children to help them to stay safe online. The pilot had demonstrated success to date with 24 schools and 8000 young people engaged thus far.

RESOLVED:

That the update on the delivery of the Police and Crime Plan is noted by the Police and Crime Panel.