Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Police Community Consultation Group meeting held 25th July, Maldon
I went along to this not at all sure what to expect. There were a large number of people there, residents, senior police officers, and other agency members, such as the Fire Brigade.
The meeting was chaired by Bob Hollis (? I think that's his name. Sorry.) from Essex Police Authority.
First to Address us was Maldon’s District Commander, Chief Inspector Craig Robertson.
The joint Community Safety Partnership in Maldon has been highly praised for the way the partners work together. Compared with 14 other similar partnerships, Maldon came out the safest. There are 8 crimes a day reported for the district, and there has been a 5-8% reduction in crime over the last year. Compare this with Witham town, which has almost the same rate as the whole of Maldon District.
There is a 30% detections rate. Someone pointed out that 30% detection meant that the criminal is getting away with it 70% of the time, which seems like very good odds for getting away with crime. Craig Robertson said that criminals tried very hard not to get detected, but he did feel a little uneasy about the ones that aren’t detected.
CR mentioned the Neighbourhood Policing Team meeting in May, and told us that the World Cup had drawn officers away from their duties to help control potential misbehaviour at Stansted Airport etc. Instead of focussing on the NPTs they took the opportunity to follow up unresolved issues, making 63 arrests in a 2 week period.
A problem with the NPT mobile phones has been highlighted, where if no officer happens to be on duty, the message won’t be picked up until the next officer is on duty. The calls are now to be diverted to a human being in those circumstances.
The NPT for Heybridge has met with great success re the “Heybridge Crew”, detecting crimes which were reported. The Heybridge Crew have also admitted to crimes that the police didn’t know about.
The issue of switching off the street lighting was touched on briefly but not delved into. CR said they were aware of residents’ concerns and fear of crime, and these would be considered at the consultation process.
CR said that because we live in a safe area, there is a tendency to open ourselves up to becoming victims, eg 60% of domestic burglaries was through insecure premises.
The Merger. Shelved not Binned,
Inspector Andy Proffit (Prophet? Sorry, didn't quite get this name either) gave us a presentation on the proposed merger with Bedfordhire and Herts. He assembled a team in September to look at the pros and cons of such a merger. Two weeks ago the situation changed, and the Home Office has stepped back from pushing the mergers through. However, the mergers may still happen if Police Forces cannot show they are capable of standing alone, that is, it that police force still fit for the purpose in the 21st century?
There are 43 police forces currently. There is a minimum staffing level at which the Home Office deems that force capable of delivering the service required, 4000 officers and 6,000 staff. At present Essex has, if I noted this correctly, 3,200 officers and 5,300 staff and argues that it can stand alone with this.
The Home Officer wanted a merger with Herts and beds. On 12th July, the planned forced merger was taken off the immediate agendas, but not off the agenda altogether.
There are 3 options:-
1. and alone.
2. Effective collaboration.
3. Voluntary merger
Essex has delivered the key services required of a police force, and represents good value for money for the council tax paid, being the third cheapest force in England and Wales.
Now the planned merger is off (for the moment),Essex Police will be looking to the Government to refund the monies spent on the project.
A questionnaire has been circulated to see what we think. This is on the back of the Policing Essex newspaper delivered to all households, as well as a separate sheet delivered to much of Essex.
Open Forum
The meeting was then opened to the floor for questions.
Mobile Phones used whilst driving. The first question was what are the police doing about it. The resident mentioned he had seen a number of people using their phones on a short journey from Maldon to South Woodham Ferrers. (I think it was something like 7 cars, 2 vans 2 lorries and a coach.)
CR said this will be dealt with firmly, as will the “Boy Racers”. New powers which allow the vehicle to be seized after a warning about antisocial driving are being implemented. He told us that in a recent exercise with Essex CC Road Safety Caravan and 12 officers, a large number of people were stopped for using mobile phones or not using their seatbelts, including one person for whom there was a warrant outstanding.
The topic of young drivers was mentioned. There is a scheme “Pass Plus” where young drivers can apply for a grant of £50 towards 6 post-passing lessons to cover aspects like motorway driving. This decreased the young driver’s risk of having an accident and is very worthwhile.
Poor driving and noisy cars and people are again reported on Market Hill. This will be dealt with.
Vandalism. One resident remarked that the church windows had been smashed, replaced at considerable cost, and then one of the new windows was smashed the next day.
CR Said that criminal damage was taken seriously, amounting to a large proportion of the crime reported. Often it was children mucking about, not realising that the damage they were causing isn’t funny to the victim.
A Graffiti File is being compiled because the perpetrator will use a characteristic tag, or a certain style. The graffiti is being photographed and filed to aid detection.
The public are urged to cooperate with the police in matters of criminal damage, with as much information as possible.
Young offenders or those at risk of offending can be helped:- Many come from unpleasant backgrounds and need help rather than censure to prevent them from re-offending. 8-13 year olds can be referred to Maldon District Council for help.
Response times. CR said for priority jobs the target is to attend within 20 minutes. This is hit 100% or the time. For Urban priority jobs, the target is 10 minutes which is hit 96% of the time. A resident pointed out that someone has to prioritise the jobs, and low priority jobs often take a lot longer to respond to. There have been a couple of hiccoughs just recently where the computer has hidden a job or two which should have been given a higher priority, and this is being sorted.
CR gave a newsworthy example. The digger destroying a house incident. Contrary to what was initially reported on the news, officers were at the scene within 10 minutes. It is the specialists ie firearms officers who took 45 minutes to get there (Not that they were planning on shooting the guy. They also use non-lethal methods such as tasers.) The situation was highly volatile and dangerous, and there was little the first officers could do. They were later commended for their bravery. (I wouldn’t fancy sorting someone in a digger. Big machines those, and surprisingly manoeuvrable. What a job!)
Only 1 in 5 calls to the police is to report a crime.
Bureaucracy is a nightmare. There was an effort to reduce bureaucracy from the home office, with 61 recommendations. A lot od bureaucracy was got rid of, but has now been replaced by – you guessed it – the Home Office.
Youth offending. The “Heybridge Crew” has been broken up, thanks to intense work by the NPT. Unfortunately, unless there is intelligence beforehand, dealing with this sort of behaviour and crimes is investigative rather than proactive, ie stopping the crimes from taking place. Where there is intelligence, the police will act pro-actively.
There are a raft of measures available for dealing with youngsters, but it’s not as easy as all that to apply. Maldon has a Youth Offending Team. Maldon District has a schools officer aimed at early intervention. A lot of effort and investment is going into prevention youth offending. (Good. We want our kids to grow up to be useful members of society, not sucked into criminality from an early age.)
Maldon is held up as a good example, because of the way the partners work together.
I'm sorry if I haven't got all the facts or have got a few things wrong. This was a toe-in-the-water session for me, a snoop to see what was going on. I would urge anyone interested to go to the next meeting.
The meeting was chaired by Bob Hollis (? I think that's his name. Sorry.) from Essex Police Authority.
First to Address us was Maldon’s District Commander, Chief Inspector Craig Robertson.
The joint Community Safety Partnership in Maldon has been highly praised for the way the partners work together. Compared with 14 other similar partnerships, Maldon came out the safest. There are 8 crimes a day reported for the district, and there has been a 5-8% reduction in crime over the last year. Compare this with Witham town, which has almost the same rate as the whole of Maldon District.
There is a 30% detections rate. Someone pointed out that 30% detection meant that the criminal is getting away with it 70% of the time, which seems like very good odds for getting away with crime. Craig Robertson said that criminals tried very hard not to get detected, but he did feel a little uneasy about the ones that aren’t detected.
CR mentioned the Neighbourhood Policing Team meeting in May, and told us that the World Cup had drawn officers away from their duties to help control potential misbehaviour at Stansted Airport etc. Instead of focussing on the NPTs they took the opportunity to follow up unresolved issues, making 63 arrests in a 2 week period.
A problem with the NPT mobile phones has been highlighted, where if no officer happens to be on duty, the message won’t be picked up until the next officer is on duty. The calls are now to be diverted to a human being in those circumstances.
The NPT for Heybridge has met with great success re the “Heybridge Crew”, detecting crimes which were reported. The Heybridge Crew have also admitted to crimes that the police didn’t know about.
The issue of switching off the street lighting was touched on briefly but not delved into. CR said they were aware of residents’ concerns and fear of crime, and these would be considered at the consultation process.
CR said that because we live in a safe area, there is a tendency to open ourselves up to becoming victims, eg 60% of domestic burglaries was through insecure premises.
The Merger. Shelved not Binned,
Inspector Andy Proffit (Prophet? Sorry, didn't quite get this name either) gave us a presentation on the proposed merger with Bedfordhire and Herts. He assembled a team in September to look at the pros and cons of such a merger. Two weeks ago the situation changed, and the Home Office has stepped back from pushing the mergers through. However, the mergers may still happen if Police Forces cannot show they are capable of standing alone, that is, it that police force still fit for the purpose in the 21st century?
There are 43 police forces currently. There is a minimum staffing level at which the Home Office deems that force capable of delivering the service required, 4000 officers and 6,000 staff. At present Essex has, if I noted this correctly, 3,200 officers and 5,300 staff and argues that it can stand alone with this.
The Home Officer wanted a merger with Herts and beds. On 12th July, the planned forced merger was taken off the immediate agendas, but not off the agenda altogether.
There are 3 options:-
1. and alone.
2. Effective collaboration.
3. Voluntary merger
Essex has delivered the key services required of a police force, and represents good value for money for the council tax paid, being the third cheapest force in England and Wales.
Now the planned merger is off (for the moment),Essex Police will be looking to the Government to refund the monies spent on the project.
A questionnaire has been circulated to see what we think. This is on the back of the Policing Essex newspaper delivered to all households, as well as a separate sheet delivered to much of Essex.
Open Forum
The meeting was then opened to the floor for questions.
Mobile Phones used whilst driving. The first question was what are the police doing about it. The resident mentioned he had seen a number of people using their phones on a short journey from Maldon to South Woodham Ferrers. (I think it was something like 7 cars, 2 vans 2 lorries and a coach.)
CR said this will be dealt with firmly, as will the “Boy Racers”. New powers which allow the vehicle to be seized after a warning about antisocial driving are being implemented. He told us that in a recent exercise with Essex CC Road Safety Caravan and 12 officers, a large number of people were stopped for using mobile phones or not using their seatbelts, including one person for whom there was a warrant outstanding.
The topic of young drivers was mentioned. There is a scheme “Pass Plus” where young drivers can apply for a grant of £50 towards 6 post-passing lessons to cover aspects like motorway driving. This decreased the young driver’s risk of having an accident and is very worthwhile.
Poor driving and noisy cars and people are again reported on Market Hill. This will be dealt with.
Vandalism. One resident remarked that the church windows had been smashed, replaced at considerable cost, and then one of the new windows was smashed the next day.
CR Said that criminal damage was taken seriously, amounting to a large proportion of the crime reported. Often it was children mucking about, not realising that the damage they were causing isn’t funny to the victim.
A Graffiti File is being compiled because the perpetrator will use a characteristic tag, or a certain style. The graffiti is being photographed and filed to aid detection.
The public are urged to cooperate with the police in matters of criminal damage, with as much information as possible.
Young offenders or those at risk of offending can be helped:- Many come from unpleasant backgrounds and need help rather than censure to prevent them from re-offending. 8-13 year olds can be referred to Maldon District Council for help.
Response times. CR said for priority jobs the target is to attend within 20 minutes. This is hit 100% or the time. For Urban priority jobs, the target is 10 minutes which is hit 96% of the time. A resident pointed out that someone has to prioritise the jobs, and low priority jobs often take a lot longer to respond to. There have been a couple of hiccoughs just recently where the computer has hidden a job or two which should have been given a higher priority, and this is being sorted.
CR gave a newsworthy example. The digger destroying a house incident. Contrary to what was initially reported on the news, officers were at the scene within 10 minutes. It is the specialists ie firearms officers who took 45 minutes to get there (Not that they were planning on shooting the guy. They also use non-lethal methods such as tasers.) The situation was highly volatile and dangerous, and there was little the first officers could do. They were later commended for their bravery. (I wouldn’t fancy sorting someone in a digger. Big machines those, and surprisingly manoeuvrable. What a job!)
Only 1 in 5 calls to the police is to report a crime.
Bureaucracy is a nightmare. There was an effort to reduce bureaucracy from the home office, with 61 recommendations. A lot od bureaucracy was got rid of, but has now been replaced by – you guessed it – the Home Office.
Youth offending. The “Heybridge Crew” has been broken up, thanks to intense work by the NPT. Unfortunately, unless there is intelligence beforehand, dealing with this sort of behaviour and crimes is investigative rather than proactive, ie stopping the crimes from taking place. Where there is intelligence, the police will act pro-actively.
There are a raft of measures available for dealing with youngsters, but it’s not as easy as all that to apply. Maldon has a Youth Offending Team. Maldon District has a schools officer aimed at early intervention. A lot of effort and investment is going into prevention youth offending. (Good. We want our kids to grow up to be useful members of society, not sucked into criminality from an early age.)
Maldon is held up as a good example, because of the way the partners work together.
I'm sorry if I haven't got all the facts or have got a few things wrong. This was a toe-in-the-water session for me, a snoop to see what was going on. I would urge anyone interested to go to the next meeting.
# posted by Evelyn @ 1:20 PM 
