a)     

National government reinstated hotspot policing for 2025/26 and requested action plans for what the Police were doing over the summer period in the regions, towns and cities;

b)     

The funding to the night buses was reducing the levels of public order offences and violence whilst people were waiting for taxis or struggling to get home late at night. The most popular had been the Torquay to Brixham bus. Feedback from young people was that they were enjoying the experiences of being able to go home safely, particularly young women;

c)     

Drugs and alcohol was a priority in the Police and Crime Plan and there had been a real push and collaboration in the southwest region to push drugs out. Intelligence suggested that county lines were changing their business model because of the successes in disrupting;

d)     

In the Police and Crime plan there had been some examples of what the Police and local authorities had been doing together with the Crown Prosecution Services (CPS) in relation to shoplifting. Plymouth had been pioneering the element of what was the minimum paperwork required to get a shoplifting offence to charging and into Court;

e)     

The police had delivered the UK pack system which aimed to provide a free access to a crime reporting system for businesses. It enabled the visibility of prolific offenders to those businesses and enabled them to report additional anti-social behaviour or issues they experienced with those individuals. This would transform the way in which towns and cities were tackling shoplifting;

f)      

The region were exemplars in the delivery of the community safety accreditation scheme (CSAS), which were the powers the Chief Constable delegated to people who were not police officers. The Commissioner would aim to produce a video over the summer period and to interview a number of people delivering that scheme in the regions communities.

g)     

There were no reported ASB incidents on the night buses;

h)     

The Commissioner reiterated that she was not pleased in having a number of leaders of the police organisation in particular the number of temporary leaders as they could not act as a full chief constable unless they were the substantive and were not able to set the strategy and direction as they should;

i)      

When the HMICFRS identified poor performance of the Police in 2022, the force had performed well which had come about under the leadership of Chief Constable James Vaughan in driving performance with pace and attention. The Commissioner advised the Panel that she did not want to rush into a recruitment process for a new chief constable whilst there was strong performance focus and leadership from the current interim chief constable;

j)      

The Commissioner’s next update report would report on good practice across the region;

k)     

By Mr Will Kerr retiring it did not infer guilt in anything, although  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

a)        

The Commissioner would share any open letters with councillors in the future;

b)       

The Commissioner would amend the annual report to include the national government priority of the neighbourhood policing guarantee;

c)        

The night bus initiative wouldn’t feature in the 2024/25 annual report as it was largely funded in that financial year and would therefore be reported in the 2025/26 annual report;

d)       

A plan was being developed for custody suites and the OPCC were doing some scrutiny around the safety of detainees and their rights and welfare being met. The OPCC was also reviewing what the independent custody visitors were saying about the suites, also how often appropriate adults were available. There was a longer term plan that was looking at the costs and facilities;

e)       

The Commissioner advised that there were no savings in a custody suite as they were expensive to run and expensive both physically and with resources of staff. The Commissioner advised that if the Panel agreed, custody suites could be brought back to the Panel following her scrutiny activity;

f)         

Anti-social behaviour (ASB) was difficult as some areas of ASB were police led whilst others were the responsibility of the local authority and despite working hard to bring together those two partners, ASB was still on the streets and not working well enough;

g)        

The Police did not received a capital budget from national government for firing ranges. The current firing ranges were at the end of their life stage and the Police were exploring regionally and nationally what the plan in the future would be. The Commissioner advised the panel that she wanted to avoid officers travelling large distances to train at alternative fire range facilities;

h)       

The Commissioners Accountability Board published an assurance statement which reviewed the operational activity in relation to performance and whether the Commissioner was assured or not of the plan for improvement;

i)         

The safe bus in Torbay would close as Health partners would be ceasing their activity in the space. Plymouth’s safe bus would be the only one to continue in the region;

j)         

The Commissioner advised that in relation to a police enquiry office in Exeter the Police were unable to guarantee that members of the public wouldn’t bring in weapons and was the reason why the enquiry office would not open;

k)        

The Commissioner reiterated that the police and their estates team worked closely with the military to find sites in the region where firearm police officers could train, but there were issues around availability of those sites as they were heavily use for their own purposes throughout the year. The Panel were advised that there was no capacity at indoor firing ranges;

l)         

Since the introduction of the AI camera which was used to detect people using mobile phones at the wheel and/or not wearing their seatbelts, there has been an increase in the number of people  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.

a)     

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) were reviewing all back office functions and budgets related to that area and would be able to brief members of the Panel before the precept meeting in February 2026;

b)     

The Commissioner advised the Panel that she would never use the resources of the office for political reasons and there was a monitoring officer employed which oversaw those actions;

c)     

It was reported that the Chief Constable wanted all neighbourhood policing teams to look like the diverse communities team and they needed to take more responsibility at the local policing level to understand their communities;

d)     

The Commissioner reiterated her desire to get her budget for the OPCC back to 0.65% and the reason for the increase over the 0.65% was due to changes in the misconduct process.

a)     

There were a number of red KPI’s but these were due to them being identified as part of the Police and Crime Plan to ensure there was more focus to ensure improvement;

b)     

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) had published a new dataset and would feature in the next performance report;

c)     

90% of 101 calls were answered within 10 minutes which was a fantastic achievement for the force that had sought to put things right.

d)     

The Police had got better at recording crime and the Commissioner requested the Panel to have a presentation on what crime data integrity looked like, looking at the types of processes that the force went through for recording crime;

e)     

The Commissioner reiterated the importance of recording crime correctly to ensure that victims in the region got the justice they deserved;

f)      

In relation to hate crime victims often did not identify that the crime they were reporting was in fact a hate crime until Police investigations took place and often there was a lag from the initial report to the hate crime identification;

g)     

The Commissioner advised the Panel that she would look to bring a profile for drugs in the region to a meeting on the panel within the municipal year that also looked to provide an update on county lines;

h)     

The Commissioner advised that she had organised a disruption workshop in relation to violence against women and girls and welcomed radical ideas and solutions to tackling male violence against women and girls in order to break the cycle of the figures rising consistently.

a)     

There had been two complaints since the beginning of January 2025 and both were resolved in consultation with the Chair of the Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Panel.

b)     

The number of complaints vary from Panel to Panel but two was deemed to be a normal amount;

c)     

The Panel were advised of the arrangements of the complaints process for those complaints against the Police and Crime Commissioner;

d)     

Both complaints related to comments that the commissioner made in the media and those complaints were dealt with through the Chair of the Police and Crime Panel’s direction.