a)     

The Chief Constable’s retirement and subsequent recruitment to the post;

b)     

Operation Medusa – an operation working with Merseyside Police’s County Lines Task Force to reduce drugs supply from that force area into the Devon and Cornwall area;

c)     

Prisoners building eco-homes to help tackle the South West housing crisis;

d)     

Commissioner’s Community Grant Schemes 2022;

e)     

Opening of six police station front offices;

f)      

Survey on 101 and 999 services;

g)     

Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022;

h)     

Shared Prosperity fund in the levelling up arrangements.

a)     

Opening of rural police stations had been seen positively and has started to provide a presence in communities for the Police. It was acknowledged that there had been a challenge to open a front desk in Paignton and there we no viable options. The Commissioner would work with Councillor Hopwood to explore the possibility of a pop-up Police Station;

b)     

A recommendation from the precept meeting that took place on 28 January 2022 would look to adopt recommendations from the male violence against women and girls commission. This had not been mentioned within the Commissioners update report and it was recommended for this to be detailed within the next Commissioners report;

c)     

Mutual aid had been a requirement from all forces to provide support for big events and had been a strategic policing requirement from the Home Secretary to support large public order events. At times in the Summer season, Devon and Cornwall would be able to use Mutual Aid to bring officers down to help with the influx of visitors. Equally Devon and Cornwall would be required to support other forces across the country with supplying officers to large public order events;

d)     

The Commissioner would update Councillor Tilbey with figures of Neighbourhood Policing numbers for Bude and Launceston due to reports from Neighbourhood Police teams not having increased staffing levels;

a)     

The baseline had been set to the date of June 2019 due to a relatively false sense of what crime looked like due to the majority of the public remaining at home from the COVID lockdowns in years 2020 and 2021. A workshop would be arranged for members of the Panel on the Scorecard, to unpick any issues that members may have had and this would take place within two months;

b)     

Hate crime had increased by 41% in Devon and Cornwall which had been concerning for members of the Panel and the Commissioner. Members of the Panel were also concerned that the community in Devon and Cornwall had been reporting that the specialist hate crime function had been removed. Members of the Panel reaffirmed the requirement for a specialist hate crime function in order to build trust with communities.

The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner advised that the National Chief Police Council had produced a race action plan which had ‘landed’ with the Force and that the Force had been in the process of recruiting a non-executive director with race and inclusion as part of their portfolio. The Commissioner recognised that the Force had been underrepresenting ethnic minorities in policing and welcomed more scrutiny on hate crime. Hate crime had become a mission critical strategic indicator within the Police and Crime Plan in order to ensure monitoring would take place openly and transparently. The Commissioner highlighted that Community Cohesion had been vital in resolving hate crime and that she would like to hear from people that had been having poor experiences within their communities. Devon and Cornwall Police had been recording misogyny as a hate crime which had been against the trend nationally for forces.

The Panel heard from the Chief Executive, Frances Hughes that the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner had been re-organising community engagement and would not be reducing the amount of engagement with communities. The Devon and Cornwall Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner had been leading nationally on community engagement and co-chaired the national collaboration board on behalf of all Offices of Police and Crime Commissioners.

The Commissioner would respond to Councillor Penberthy in relation to his query as to whether the specialist hate crime function in Plymouth had been removed and also reaffirmed her position to build trust in communities and for hate crime to be a priority as part of the recruitment process for the new Chief Constable.

a)     

Deaths of bikers in the region had increased substantially with 23 killed or seriously injured with 10 killed between 1 January and 8 July 2022, the baseline for all deaths on the road had been set to 58 for the year by Vision Zero. The Police had continued and increased efforts to get messages out to the public which had been supported by the Fire Service. Speed continued to be an issue for the increase in deaths in the region and the Commissioner re-affirmed her commitment for speed cameras and Community Speed Watch programmes;

b)     

Torbay Council had not engaged fully with the Vision Zero Partnership. The authority had a high number of pedestrian deaths and the Commissioner requested for more input from the authority in an attempt to drive a decrease in deaths.

a)     

There had been an increase in noise complaints from residents in the region around motorbikes and the Panel were concerned about reports from residents indicating that baffles had been removed to increase noise. The Panel had been interested in noise cameras for noise hotspots in the region but noted only 5 had been allocated nationally. The Commissioner advised that ASB had been a priority within the Police and Crime Plan; there had been successful efforts with car owners through Sgt Owen Messenger and George’s Car Media through social media to address safety concerns but recognised more needed to be done with owners of motorcycles;

b)     

The ’20 plenty’ scheme is Cornwall had gathered pace with infrastructure in place with regards to staffing, the Commissioner endorsed the scheme but clarified that it was a Council led Policy;

c)     

For future the meetings the Commissioner would report on the monitoring of funded projects from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner specifically the effects whether they had been positive or negative in relation to the funding granted to them;

a)     

Serious Violence Prevention Partnership

b)     

10 year strategic victim support contract

c)     

Independent Custody Visiting scheme

a)     

Hate crime should be reflected more in the next annual report should it be unable to detailed more in the 2021 – 22 report. Violence against women and girls should have a higher priority within the report. The Commissioner confirmed that this would be detailed much more in the annual report due to their strategic importance.

b)     

The Panel recommended that sections on hate crime and violence against women and girls be included in the Annual Report 2021 – 2022.