Councillor Penberthy nominated Councillor Haydon for the Chair of the Police and Crime Panel for the municipal year 2023/24, which was seconded by Councillor Wright.

Councillor Croad nominated Councillor Towill for the Chair of the Police and Crime Panel for the municipal year 2023/24, which was seconded by Councillors Toms.

Following the vote, Councillor Towill was appointed Chair of the Police and Crime Panel for the municipal year 2023/24.

For Councillor Haydon (7)

Councillors Ewings, Goodman-Bradbury, Haydon, Leaver, Penberthy, Wright and Sharon Minty.

For Councillor Towill (8)

Councillors Chopak, Croad, Guest, Kennedy, Toms, Towill, Tilbey and Tyerman.

Abstain (1)

Councillor Thomas.

Councillor Ewings nominated Councillor Haydon for Vice Chair of the Police and Crime Panel for the 2023/24 municipal year. This was seconded by Councillor Towill.

The Panel voted in favour of Councillor Haydon being Vice Chair of the Police and Crime Panel for the 2023/24 municipal year.

To sign and confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 27 January 2023.

The minutes from the meeting held on 27 January 2023 were agreed as a correct record. 

Members will be asked to make any declaration of interest in respect of items on this agenda.

The following declarations of interest were made by Councillors:

To receive questions from (and provide answers to) members of the public that are relevant to the panel’s functions.

Questions should be no longer than 100 words and sent to Democratic Support, Plymouth City Council, Floor 3, Ballard House, West Hoe Road, Plymouth, PL1 3BJ or democratic.support@plymouth.gov.uk

Questions must be received at least 5 complete working days before the meeting.

The following question was received from a member of the public:

Alison Hernandez (Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner) added:

a)    She did not hold individual police officers to account for their conduct, it would be the role of the Chief Constable;

b)    It was important that the Police service was open, transparent and accountable when behaviour fell below standards;

c)    It was the role of the Police and Crime Commissioner to ensure that the Chief Constable managed misconduct and corruption by:

                      i.        Holding the Chief Constable to account;

                     ii.        Regularly reviewing misconduct performance and matters arising from misconduct proceedings;

                    iii.        Having the OPCC team closely monitoring the management of police conduct though the Police Professional Standards and Ethics Board;

                    iv.        Making strong representations to the college of policing on their review of the policing code of ethics;

                     v.        Having the responsibility for appointing the legally qualified chairs for police misconduct panels who presided over serious misconduct cases;

                    vi.        Having a role in considering the matter of forfeiture of police officer pensions for officers convicted of a criminal offence that is liable to lead to a serious loss of confidence in the police service;

                  vii.        Being the appropriate authority for the Chief Constable, which meant she was responsible for considering complaints against the Chief Constable and considering suspension or dismissal in the cases of serious conduct matters;

d)    The Police and Crime Commissioner suggested that people who had witnessed or suspected conduct that fell below police standards of professional behaviour should report it o the Police Professional Standards Department within Devon and Cornwall Police;

e)    Police employees had an anonymous hotline, run by Crime Stoppers, called the police integrity line, through which they could report any concerns anonymously.

Alison Hernandez (Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner) introduced the report and highlighted:

a)    Since the report had been published a letter and report from HMICFRS had been received and circulated with members of the panel;

b)    The report had been part funded by the Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner alongside the Policing Minister, to give assurance that the firearms licensing department had delivered against recommendations from the IOPC and was working safely;

c)    In addition, since the papers had been published, the Policing Minister and Government had responded to the coroner’s recommendations and the minister had:

                      i.        Committed £500,000 to train firearms licensing officers nationally as one of the issues highlighted was that there had not been any accredited training in place;

                     ii.        He would not change the legislation around honouring  a firearms licences certificate for a resident but had a consultation out around the level of fees for the cost of firearms licences and the commissioner urged members and residents to take part to express their views;

d)    The Police had taken responsibility for issuing a firearm to someone who should not have had on in the case of the Keyham shootings and a 100 person investment had been made into the department;

e)    A significant amount of funding had been invested in the department, but challenges around efficiency remained;

f)     The Commissioner had been reassured the department was much safer and the report from HMI had reiterated this;

g)    The decision had been made to decouple from Dorset Police which was underway.

In response to questions it was explained:

h)    The Commissioner would provide information to panel members on the difference between the income generated from licenses and the cost of issuing such a license;

i)     Panel Members suggested that people should surrender their firearms whilst waiting for a new licence, rather than having a temporary licence and the Commissioner explained that Assistant Chief Constable Jim Pierce had recently been appointed and oversaw the firearms licensing department had a plan in place to reduce the use of temporary licences and regular update reports were sent to the OPCC and the Commissioner was sharing updates with the Policing Minister;

j)     99 members of staff from Devon and Cornwall Police were being put into the department;

k)    The Commissioner was happy to support Plymouth City Council with any letters and meetings that might be needed to seek support for the £400,000 cost of the inquest into the incident;

l)     The Commissioner would provide information after the meeting on how the issue of illegal firearms would be approached;

m)  Knife amnesties took place twice a year, but the Commissioner could not recall the last time a gun amnesty had taken place and so she would look into it as possibility for the future;

n)    The report had shown that 43 people held firearms illegally and the Commissioner explained that in a number of cases this was due to someone passing away, and the licensing expiring;

o)    The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Alison Hernandez (Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner) briefly introduced the agenda item on Community Recovery Activity in Keyham before handing over to Dr Katie McBride (Lecturer in Criminology, University of Plymouth), Professor Zoe James (Professor of Criminology) and Caroline Watson (PhD candidate, University of Plymouth) whogave a presentation on the agenda item and highlighted:

a)    They had conducted an independent academic review of the Home Office funded community policing and community safety activity and the Ministry of Justice funded victim support activities in Keyham and the surrounding areas following the critical incident of 12 August 2021;

b)    The evaluation had been funded for 12 months by the Home Office’s Keyahm Community Police Grant via the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall, with additional funding from the Devon and Cornwall serious violence prevention partnership for a full-time PhD student to continue research for a further two years beyond the initial 12 months;

c)    The aims of the Safer Keyham, and Keyham Community Policing grants, had been:

                      i.        To restore feelings of safety through a range of initiatives including target hardening, high visibility policing, problem solving approaches, and extensive community engagement;

                     ii.        To mitigate future and existing harm through community policing and safer streets style interventions;

                    iii.        To Advance community action through investment in empowerment and skills-based engagement, enhanced youth provision, and citizen consultations to lead to sustainable citizen led change;

d)    And if the funding from the Ministry of Justice had sought to support victims through additional caseworks from Victim Support, Young Devon and Jeremiah’s Journey, and extra capacity within Victim Support’s 24/7 support helpline;

e)    The aims of the evaluation had been to:

                      i.        Provide an evidence base for responding to a mass shooting from a community policing, community safety, and victim support perspective;

                     ii.        Take a trauma-informed research approach to ensure a robust and rigorous evaluation that will effectively identify local lessons and provide national learning;

                    iii.        Develop an evidence-based ‘menu’ of interventions that could inform future community and victim support responses to critical incidents;

f)     The research questions had been:

                      i.        “Has the neighbourhood policing approach in Keyham, including sustained community engagement and consultation, as a restorative and preventative measure taken following the incident helped to restore community trust and confidence?;

                     ii.        Have the funded community safety interventions (strengthening the local environment, targeted crime prevention, and assisting the community to reclaim community spaces) in Keyham had any statistically significant impact on crime/anti-social behaviour levels and community feelings of safety, resilience, and recovery?;

                    iii.        What impact has Victim Support’s role and services had upon aiding individuals and the community in Keyham to recover from the trauma they have experienced?;

                    iv.        Which approaches or interventions have demonstrated the greatest evidence-based impact to aid the recovery of the community in Keyham and feelings of safety?;

                     v.        Which approaches or interventions (if any) have negatively impacted the recovery of the community in Keyham and feelings of safety?”

g)    The methodology of the report  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

An adjustment agreed to move the Commissioner’s Update Report to this point on the meeting agenda.

Alison Hernandez (Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner) provided an update on the following matter which had occurred after the report publication for the agenda for the meeting:

a)    On 26^th July 2023 she had made the decision to suspend Will Kerr (Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police) pursuant to section 38-2 of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 following allegations of misconduct and the matter had been referred to the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC), who had confirmed an investigation would be carried out;

b)    She made no judgement based on the fact she had suspended Chief Constable Will Kerr based on the allegations against him.

In response to questions it was further explained:

c)    The Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner had not been aware of the allegations during the shortlisting process for the role;

d)    She had been made aware of the allegations on 23 March 2023 by the Police service of Northern Ireland and she had made a referral the same day to the Independent Office of Police Conduct who had later determined did not have jurisdiction over the issue;

e)    She had considered suspension at that point and concluded it was appropriate at the time with the information she had;

f)     Further information had come to light on 17 July 2023 from the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland, who had taken over the investigation, and following this a further request was submitted to the IOPC who then agreed to open an investigation;

g)    Acting Chief Constable, Jim Colwell would be in place at least until the conclusion of the investigation.

The Commissioner introduced the remainder of the report and highlighted;

h)    How sad she had been to learn of the passing of former Councillor Vivien Pengelly who had been a huge champion of policing and had supported the Commissioner from the beginning of her career and had spent many years scrutinising and supporting the police force;

i)     There had been recognition of local officers at the Police Bravery Awards: PC Darren Brimacombe and PC Tim Willett had been recognised for their bravery during a frenzied knife attack on Dartmoor when they were responding to a high-risk missing person;

j)     She would be visiting some of the front desks that would be reopening and would be promoting them and invite panel members to the reopenings;

k)    There had been excellent attendance at a Councillor Advocates seminar on road safety and there was now an improved understanding of the tasking process in policing and of the investments that had been made through vision zero, particularly in relation to motorcyclist safety.

In response to questions it was explained:

l)      A conversation on the level of impact could be had with users of motorcycles and customised cars through existing channels but conversations were being had around motorcyclist safety through other channels as well;

m)  A Violence  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

In response to questions it was reported:

a)    Action had been taken in reaction to issues and reporting, but there were limited resources and in response to an issue raised by Councillor Penberthy around reporting and the information getting to the ‘front lines’, the Commissioner agreed to look into the issue and provide a response outside of the meeting;

b)    Devon and Cornwall was no 10 on the national league table for answering of 999 calls for June 2023;

c)    There had been a national agreement developed in relation to how police respond to mental health calls for service and efforts were being made to ensure that although a call might come through to the police, the right help might be from elsewhere and people were being signposted to this;

d)    Although Devon and Cornwall had the lowest crime rate in the country, the communities across the area did not tolerate crime, were aware of how to report crime to the police and had very high expectations of the police, all resulting in a high volume of 101 calls;

e)    Simplifying on 101 calls would help to prioritise calls such as victims of serious or violent crimes who were getting in touch after the event, and measures had been introduced so that everyone who called would speak to a human before being queued.

The Committee agreed to note the report.

The Committee agreed to note the report.

No formal complaints had been received against the Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner in the last period.

The following additions were suggested for the work programme:

1.    Recruitment and Retention Plan;

2.    Panel support the Commissioner to obtain more funding;

3.    Evaluation of Op Loki;