Agenda item

The Chief Constable, Sara Thornton, will be attending the meeting to make a presentation and answer Members’ questions.

The Chief Constable, Sara Thornton, gave a presentation on significant policing issues across the Borough.

The Chief Constable emphasised the following points:

• Significant progress had been made on cutting bureaucracy by reducing the number of forms to be completed by officers;
• There was a commitment to a visible presence by police in the area and therefore this would not be reduced in the next four years;
• The reduction in serious acquisitive crime in Bracknell Forest was significant at 24%;
• Reducing violence against the person included domestic violence and had been reduced by 28%;
• It was recognised that antisocial behaviour undermines the quality of life and 11% of people surveyed perceived that there was a high level of antisocial behaviour in their area. This was below half the perception in other areas and Operation Lion Club was successfully helping to reduce this further;
• Satisfaction levels of victims surveyed continued to improve, particularly with victims of vehicle crime;
• The identified funding shortfall of £52 million over four years had been resolved.
• As part of the productivity strategy specialist units had been combined with Hampshire and further options were being considered. It was explained that changes to the Local Policing Model had meant a reduction in the middle level of management and therefore associated costs. Non staffing costs were also being reviewed to ensure value for money on building and fleet costs for example.

The Chief Constable then responded to questions from the Council on her presentation.

In response to a question from Councillor Angell concerns that people were losing faith in reporting certain crimes the Chief Constable confirmed that survey results demonstrated a reduction in crime reporting across both actual reports and those within the victim survey, suggesting that the level of reporting was consistent and not falling. She explained that there were diverse reasons for this. Targeted campaigns were used to encourage reporting by certain victims for example domestic violence and encouraging third person reporting was appropriate in other areas such as hate crime.

A concern was raised by Councillor Dr Barnard that the reduced summary of the DASH form used for domestic abuse incidents being provided to Children’s Services did not include vital information. In response it was explained that the new process was to support shared services across 6 authority areas, to ensure that only relevant information was being shared and that the particular issue was incomplete forms resulting in missing data rather than the forms themselves.

In response to a query by Councillor Brossard regarding whether the Police would continue to participate in Neighbourhood Action Groups following the change in structure and loss of support from April next year the Chief Constable assured Members that they would not see any difference in support. The Chief Constable was asked by Councillor Kensall what the advantages were of a review of neighbourhood areas to reduce from 14 to six areas. The Chief Constable responded that this which would strengthen operational resilience in smaller neighbourhood policing teams and provide better supervision within each area. Existing Neighbourhood Action Groups could amalgamate to match the new boundaries but it was acknowledged that there was no expectation that all would choose to do this.

When asked by Councillor Brossard  about the continuing use of the system of Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras throughout the Borough the Chief Constable reported that there was a small team working through the Head Quarters across 7 days but they were only able to provide night cover 50% of the time. The Chief Constable had been very grateful to Bracknell Forest for their financial support to set this up. LPA Area Commander Simon Bowden had been able to provide an additional person to support this work until April 2013 on a local project called Lamp Lighter.

The Chief Constable was reminded by Councillor McCracken of previous conversations on the subject and was asked to reassure the Council that there would be no diminution in the commitment to managing prolific offenders. It was explained that despite becoming a shared service the Integrated Offender Management service was working with probation to deal with ten top tier offenders. In addition LPA Area Commander Simon Bowden had identified an additional officer and this was extended to working with 24 offenders.

In response to a further concern expressed by Councillor McCracken about the impact of sharing the police officer dedicated to Bracknell Forest’s Youth Offending Service with Wokingham the Chief Constable explained that this provision was required by law and that the specific duties to be carried out only took less than 50% of the officers’ time. She confirmed that Thames Valley Police were also committed to offender management and provided an additional £600,000 to Youth Offending Teams in their area.

In response to a final question by Councillor McCracken the Chief Constable confirmed that the Community Safety Partnership had information sharing protocols in place for sharing information on serious alcohol or drug related incidents with Bracknell Forest Council and other strategic agencies.

The Mayor thanked the Chief Constable for her presentation and for answering Members questions.