Alison Hernandez (Police and Crime Commissioner) introduced the item and highlighted the following points:

 

a)     Welcomed Barry Jones as the Independent Member for Devon;

b)    Introduced the Acting Chief Constable Jim Colwell and Chief Inspector Tim Evans;

c)     The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) had received £1 million from the previous Government to tackle anti-social behaviour, specifically through hotspot policing;

d)    The money received was used for overtime for Police Officers to do high visibility patrols;

e)     £200,000 had been added from OPCC reserves to enhance Local Authority support through Street Marshals;

f)      Hotspot policing was a programme of £1.2 million and the areas identified were done in consultation with the police based on statistics and knowledge of the specific areas;

g)     Tim Evans (Chief Inspector) was appointed to oversee the programme;

h)    The areas in receipt of the funding were listed in the report.

 

Jim Colwell (Acting Chief Constable) added:

i)      The impact of serious violence could have a large impact within communities in terms of sense of safety and people feeling safe in their own home, workplaces and going about their business;

j)      The levels of serious violence in Devon and Cornwall were less than other forces throughout the country;

k)     Every incident of serious violence had a lasting impact on communities;

l)      Devon and Cornwall Police were often rightly challenged about how they were dealing with issues of anti-social behaviour (ASB).

Tim Evans (Chief Inspector) added:

m)   The grant funding from the Government and the funding from the Commissioner enabled the force to enhance a partnership offer across Devon and Cornwall;

n)    The project was delivered into 13 areas, which were split into two tiers. Tier One areas had gained police patrols and partnership patrols in the form on Street Marshals. Tier Two areas gained funding for Street Wardens only;

o)    The patrol methodology fit into a wider piece work which aimed to tackle serious violence and ASB;

p)    Although a large part of the funding had gone towards delivering highly visible foot patrols, some of the funding had been channelled into enhancing the force’s problem solving in selected areas;

q)    The patrol methodology was a tried and tested and was based on national and international evidence;

r)     The evidence for the patrol methodology was largely based on university-led trials, led by Oxford University and other notable universities;

s)     Although in Devon and Cornwall the methodology was being used to drive down serious violence and ASB, it had been used in other areas to drive down drug dealing and other crime types;

t)     The methodology showed that a patrol was needed in an area once every three days for 15 minutes;

u)    Evidence suggested that 15 minutes was the amount of time police officers or Street Marshalls needed to be present for most people within the geography to see them;

v)     Funding had allowed Devon and Cornwall Police to prime the methodology and create more visibility than the methodology suggested;

w)    Devon and Cornwall Police had the ability to deliver the methodology without the funding, however the funding had allowed them to deliver more over the past six months;

x)    Although displacement could happen, it was evident that the methodology was proven to affect ‘volume crime’ and the public seeing police officers or Street Marshalls would deter them from committing crimes;

y)     A study in the US showed although the patrol was in the middle of the area, there was a net benefit to the areas surrounding the patrol;

z)     The ask from police officers and Street Marshals was to engage with members of the public, businesses and vulnerable people and to gather intelligence;

aa)  The officers and Marshals where not there to make arrests, however this was a by-product of the patrols and they were present when crimes were committed;

bb)Officers and Marshals needed to be visible to speak to people, to be the face of policing within the area and ensure that the public aware that there is a consistent police presence;

cc)  The 13 areas across Devon and Cornwall had been selected as the patrols needed to go where they would have the most benefit within communities which were suffering with the highest levels of crime, serious violence and ASB;

dd)The legacy plan was to roll the methodology out force-wide in the coming year;

ee)  At the start of 2024, serious violence and ASB figures were combined and mapped to select the areas which needed support;

ff)    Further temporal analysis was undertaken to understand when offences where happening during times of the day, days of the week and months of the year;

gg)  The data was checked through the Cambridge Harm Index which was a nationally recognised system;

hh)Police officers were tracked through their radio handsets for command and control purposes, and the patrol methodology aided in ensuring the patrols were precise;

ii)     The patrols had been put in place to show the Home Office that the methodology is being delivered as expected, and enabled the force to define the patrols and work with Street Marshals and officers to improve the way that they patrol;

jj)     25,000 members of the public had been engaged with during the patrols during August and September 2024;

kk)  There had been over 600 intelligence logs from Street Wardens and officers which included members of the public giving information around who was committing offences, where the offences were happening, where drugs were being dealt and, who was assaulting who;

ll)     Patrols included premises visits;

mm)                Over 100 arrests had been made alongside a significant number of stop searches;

nn)Over 300 ASB incidents had been attended by officers and Street Marshalls;

oo)Street Marshals cost less than Police officer’s, and members of the public, specifically vulnerable members of the public, would speak to Street Marshals when they might not have spoken to a Police officer;

pp)Work had gone into how the methodology was communicated to the public including utilising traditional media such as BCC News, and producing maps to inform the public where patrols had taken place;

qq)Community feedback had been gathered through officers and DC Alert which was the community messaging system, allowing members of the public to rate the patrols and provide feedback;

rr)   Evidence from partnership patrols and police patrols was shared with local partnerships, the public and the Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Panel;

ss)   Problem solving plans had been developed within the 13 focus areas to resolve issues that were present;

tt)   Street Marshals were using the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme (CSAS) which would give them the power to demand names of people causing ASB;

uu)Within 12 months there would be a self-service tool which would enable the force to map local hotspot areas and direct officers, with accuracy, to patrol them.

In response to questions, it was explained:

vv)  Officers were aware they were tracked, and the information was used as a learning tool;

ww)                 Street Marshals were tracked with a physical box which was on their person, rather than the radios which were used for tracking Police officers;

xx)Location data through radios had been used for a number of years in misconduct investigations;

yy)  Clear parameters were put in place regarding tracking of officers and Marshals;

zz)  There was a broader initiative for Devon and Cornwall Police to increase the number of arrests being made, an example was the arrest rate around domestic abuse which had increased from a percentage of mid-thirties to 51%;

 

aaa)	The Criminal Justice System was struggling with the demand, and had been struggling before the funding had been introduced for hotspot policing;

 

bbb)	The addition of hotpot policing only added minor pressure to the Criminal Justice System as the overall pressure was from the national policing push for more arrests;

ccc)	Funded Police patrols were introduced in Penzance over the Summer 2024, and due to the positive impact, the local sector Inspector was delivering the patrols as part of their business as usual;

 

 

 

 

 

ddd)	Hotspot policing would not negatively affect response times to incidents;

 

eee)

Police in the West Midlands had used the patrol methodology in 2008, showing its historical success. More recently, there was a trial across six forces in 2023, and the grant funding received from the Home Office was given to all forces across the UK, meaning Devon and Cornwall were part of a larger network rolling out this methodology;

 

 

 

 

 

 

fff)	Biddeford was classed as a Tier Two area, and so was entitled to partnership patrols only;

 

 

 

ggg)	The OPCC had sent an engagement van to hotspot areas to engage with the public on how to report ASB and other criminal activity to the police;

 

 

 

 

hhh)	The new Government was focussed on trying to improve public confidence in policing.

 

The Panel agreed to note the report.