Minutes:
The Police & Crime Commissioner for Cambridgeshire addressed the meeting and the following points were made:
· Police and crime plan setting out its priorities has been accepted by the panel and is available to view online.
· The police are accountable to the public via the Police & Crime Commissioner.
· The Police & Crime Commissioner is the face of the public, not the face of the police.
· In charge of police budget of around £132 million and employs 2400 people.
· Not just the Police Commissioner but also the Crime Commissioner – Working with communities and neighbourhood watch groups trying to prevent crime.
· Have commissioned a new piece of software called ‘Alert’ which updates daily via the police showing any instances of criminal activity within the area.
· Tackling burglary is a high priority – in the past there has been a turn around of up to three days for a victim of burglary to receive a crime number, the Police & Crime Commissioner is aiming to have a same day turn around in the future.
· Wants communities to work with the police in tackling anti-social behaviour.
· There are a number of specialist units combating organised crime working within the rural areas working alongside Countryside Watch and Farm Watch whilst also working alongside authorities from neighbouring counties.
· Trying to bring organisations together to fight crime using Safer Peterborough Partnership as a model.
· Would like to see more collaboration between the police and the NHS for instances when dealing with offenders suffering from mental health issues.
· A new position is to be set up of an Outreach Worker whose job will be to visit Parishes, Schools and other local groups to see what concerns local residents have.
The following questions were put to the Police & Crime Commissioner:
Crime within rural areas, specifically burglaries seems to have increased recently. Is there going to be an increase in police presence within the rural areas?
Due to resources it is not possible to have Police Officers everywhere. Work has already been carried out to improve the time it takes an operator to answer an emergency call (94% of calls answered within 30 seconds)and the time it takes an officer to arrive at the scene (aimed response time of 3-4 minutes anywhere in the county). Within the next 18 months we are also looking to allocate police officers with new computerised phone equipment that will allow them to carry out spot checks on suspicious vehicles and will also allow them to submit reports there and then which should allow the officer to spend more time on the street and less time behind a desk. We are also trying to encourage more people to become Special Constables within the county.
With the likelihood that ward boundaries will be changing in Peterborough, will there be an alignment with the Police and the Boundary Commission on neighbourhoods?
It is unlikely that policing geographic will be affected by the Boundary review.
In Peakirk, 3% of the dwellings have been broken into and burgled in the last 12 months. Is this in line with the average with the rest of the county?
The Police & Crime Commissioner said he would investigate this issue further as this was clearly quite a high percentage for such a small community.
Are the police looking into the increase in transit vans roaming rural areas looking for scrap metal?
We have a specialist unit looking at the situation of scrap metal thieves in the area as this is clearly organised crime. The difficulty is that a lot of these criminals come from outside the county which makes it harder to track them.
Do you think it would be helpful if legitimate scrap metal merchants were required to be licensed?
Very keen on this happening and are pushing the government to look at this.
Eye, Thorney and Newborough cover approximately 40% of the parished area in Peterborough but only have 2 PCSO’s. Should this proportion be higher?
PCSO’s are the eyes and ears of the police and if they see a crime taking place they would contact the police much like any resident would. Keen for more constables to be out on the streets and also encouraging more people to become Special Constables.