Question by Mr Alastair Warren

In my last Email to the PCC Panel of 4 February 2016 about IPCC Ref. 2015/053660 I referenced Tony Hogg’s letter Ref. COM_COR_WARREN-A_1145_130905 of 5 September 2013 that stated that PCC’s cannot get involved in operational policing.

Given the newness of the PCC role and it involving public engagement and education to inform the public about the role, Commissioner Hernandez’s experience as a police trainer and the PCC Panel Chair reminding a Panel member of their scrutiny role at the last PCC Panel, for the benefit of many please clarify whether Commissioner Hernandez and the Commissioner’s OPCC can lawfully be involved in operational policing matters?

Response by Councillor Croad (Chair)

The role of the Police and Crime Commissioner, under the terms of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011, is to -

*secure an efficient and effective police for their area;

*appoint the Chief Constable, hold them to account for running the force, and if necessary dismiss them;

*set the police and crime objectives for their area through a police and crime plan;

*set the force budget and determine the precept;

*contribute to the national and international policing capabilities set out by the Home Secretary; and

*bring together community safety and criminal justice partners, to make sure local priorities are joined up.

The Chief Constable is responsible for maintaining the Queen’s Peace, and has direction and control over the force’s officers and staff.  The Chief Constable holds office under the Crown, but is appointed by the PCC.  The Chief Constable is accountable to the law and the PCC for the delivery of policing in the police area but remains free to exercise the powers and duties of a constable without fear or favour.

More information can be found in the Police Protocol Order 2011

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/policing-protocol-order-2011-statutory-instrument

Question by Mr Alastair Warren

At the last PCC Panel meeting, the Chair told Commissioner Hernandez that the PCC Panel had spent a considerable amount of time developing the existing police performance metric and not to throw the baby out with the bath water.

Is Commissioner Hernandez’s proposed new customer satisfaction police performance metric the same as that created by PCC Katy Bourne in Sussex?

Response by Councillor Croad (Chair)

On behalf of the questioner the Chair will ask the Police and Crime Commissioner to provide a comment regarding the matter during the relevant item on the agenda.

(a)

the consultation process ran from 1 July – 9 September 2016;

(b)

the consultation consisted of an online survey, consultation events and focus groups;

(c)

the online survey generated in excess of 1300 responses, 18 responses had been received from partners and key stakeholders, 24 consultation events had been held in a range of locations across Devon and Cornwall along with six focus groups;

(d)

the OPCC team were working closely with the Chief Constable to further develop the Plan;

(e)

the PCC planned to publish the final version of the Police and Crime Plan in late November 2016.

(f)

Young Devon and Young Cornwall had been commissioned to investigate ways to better communicate with young people;

(g)

rural policing remained a challenge;

(h)

the PCC sought the help and engagement of local Councillors to improve policing in the peninsula;

(i)

it was important to ensure that members of the public were able to contact the Police by telephone or e-mail;

(j)

there was a difference in 999 response times in urban and rural areas;

(k)

a bid for £3/4m had been submitted to the Police Transformation Fund for Offender Management, if this bid was successful some work could commence  on this issue;

(l)

a report on the Strategic Alliance would be presented at a later meeting.

(a)

the Citizens in Policing Strategy had previously been presented to the Panel in April 2016;

(b)

an ex Chief Superintendent (Emma Webber) had now been appointed to lead on this project;

(c)

a future update report would be presented to the Panel in early 2017;

(d)

it was acknowledged that the work on this project had not progressed as quickly as anticipated;

(e)

a budget had been allocated for the work.

(a)

this report was a brief update – interim findings – and a more comprehensive report would be provided in early 2017 around the full evaluation of the Victim Care Unit and the Victim Care Network;

(b)

Victim Services were now starting to make a difference;

(c)

the PCC were now aware how things could be improved.

(a)

considerable work had been undertaken to improve the 101 service, and it was now beginning to stabilise;

(b)

the waiting time for a non-urgent 101 call had decreased from over eight minutes in the six months to the end of February 2016, to four minutes in the six months to the end of August 2016;

(c)

during the three months between March and June 2016 the average waiting time was below four minutes, and during the peak summer season of July and August 2016 this had increased to between four and five minutes;

(d)

the Chief Constable took this issue very seriously and the Gold Group which had been tasked to deal with this issue addressed it with the same focus and commitment applied to any potential major incident.

In response to questions, Members were advised that –

(e)

the sum of £250K was made available to deal with the 101 issue, although the actual spend was only £50K;

(f)

the backlog of crime recording was transferred from the call centre to other departments to clear;

(g)

further work on the 101 service was needed to ensure that the current performance standard could be sustained;

(h)

the PCC was happy to work with all health partners to deal with the issue of mentally unwell people who entered custody and needed a mental health assessment.  It was vital to ensure there were sufficient medical staff to conduct these assessments;

(i)

the OPCC Diversity Team and officers had been involved in successful outreach work in the peninsula;

(j)

Victim Support and Crimestoppers were alternative methods that could be used to report a crime if victims did not want to contact the police direct;

The Chair commended the Chief Constable for reducing the 101 waiting time to four minutes.

(a)

the PCC wanted to work more collaboratively with the emergency services, and had already participated in a number of positive discussions with colleagues from Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service along with Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service;

(b)

the single remand court pilot has been an interesting challenge – resourcing for this was intense and the pilot would be fully evaluated before a decision was made on a wider roll-out;

(c)

the wider review of the police estate would conclude before January 2017:

(d)

a campaign by the residents of St Ives and Hayle had resulted in the Chief Constable agreeing to provide an additional constable for the locality;

(e)

work on reforming the police funding formula would commence shortly and the OPCC team were ready to assist with the process, challenging or helping as necessary;

(f)

the Annual Report was an ‘end of term’ report for the departing PCC;

(g)

victim based crime (over the period of the report) reduced by over 15%  in advance of national trends;

(h)

the increase of 4.5% in recorded violence with injury offences was against a reported increase averaging 20% across the rest of the country;

(i)

the victim care network had been a significant success;

(k)

it was important to ensure that the process of the funding formula progressed better than last year.

In response to questions, Members were advised that –

(l)

work had now been commissioned to investigate a bi or tri-service location at Liskeard;

(m)

the OPCC were fully engaged with, and represented on, the Cornwall One Public Estate Forum and also engaged with the ‘blue light’ version of the Forum;

(n)

a violent act did not necessarily involve physical contact – it could be a verbal threat or abuse, and included online harassment.

The Chair praised the Chief Executive for the quality of his report.