To receive an update from Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Philip Wilkinson OBE, MPhil.
If you have any queries you would like to submit in advance please contact areaboards@wiltshire.gov.uk and put Royal Wootton Bassett & Cricklade - Ask the PCC in the subject line.
The PCC’s Annual Report 2022/23 is available online.
Minutes:
Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Philip Wilkinson, OBE, MPhil, gave an overview of the progress that had been made towards the objectives in his Crime Plan since he attended the last Area Board on 27 September. The PCC explained that Wiltshire Police was a more outward facing organisation and was engaging with the public to provide a better service. Key points included:
· Chief Constable Catherine Roper and he were working to rebuild public confidence in the force and to drive performance.
· Wiltshire Police had 214 more police officers than 2 years ago.
· They had reduced the ratio of civilian staff to officers, as they had previously had the highest ratio of civilian staff to officers in the country.
· In the last three months response times to 999 calls had reduced by more than 50 percent (excluding the element of the wait that the provider took to connect the calls). In the same period, response to 101 calls had reduced from 15 minutes 48 seconds to around seven minutes, which was still not good enough.
· Although there was still much improvement to be made, Wiltshire Police had gone form the worst performing force in terms of prosecutions for rapes and serious sexual offences, to being in the top third of all forces in terms of performance.
· There were now 115 Community Speed Watch Teams across Wiltshire and Swindon.
· Average speed was coming down in hotspot areas. In 2021 Wiltshire Police achieved 1,300 speed enforcement sanctions and in 2023 they achieved over 11,000.
· John Derryman had been appointed as Chief of Corporate Services at Wiltshire Police to improve areas such as training, workforce planning and estate management.
The PCC also outlined his precept proposals for the forthcoming financial year, which would see an increase of £13 for a Band D property. He noted that Wiltshire had the second worst funded police force in the country and outlined the financial pressures facing the force, including inflation and pay award increases. There was also a need to fund a police hub for the south of the county, which had an estimated cost in the region of £30 million. He explained that Wiltshire Police’s funding came primarily through the local tax base and a government grant. He highlighted that Wiltshire Council was one of the most efficiently run local authorities in the country so had relatively low tax base compared to most force areas.
Chief Inspector James Brain joined the meeting remotely to provide an update on behalf of the local neighbourhood police team and to give an overview of the new target operating model for police response teams. The following points were made:
· It was confirmed that the police station in Royal Wootton Bassett would remain open.
· Chief Inspector Brain’s sole focus was on neighbourhood policing. He was responsible for seven neighbourhood police teams, each of which was led by an inspector.
· Under the new target operating model, introduced the previous week, response teams from Swindon and Chippenham, would both deploy double crewed cars to the Area Board’s community area. Under the new model four officers would be deployed, an increase on the old system when only two or three officers were on duty during each shift.
· In addition to their existing community engagements, a parish forum would be set up twice a year where local councillors could ask questions to the inspectors in the neighbourhood police teams. The first meeting was planned to take place in April 2024 with the second meeting in November.
During the discussion, the following points were made:
· The Area Board thanked the PCC and Chief Inspector for their updates.
· In response to a question why, despite improvements, only nine percent of rapes and serious sexual offences were leading to successful prosecution, the PCC explained that he was not satisfied and was determined to improve outcomes.
· The PCC noted that investigations were underway about failings to properly disclose information under Clare’s Law, a domestic violence disclosure scheme allowing individuals to request information about their partner’s history of abusive behaviour. He explained that processes were being put in place to ensure that the failings could not happen again.
· It was confirmed that the statistics provided during the PCC’s update related to the whole of Wiltshire, including Swindon, and not just the Wiltshire Council authority area.
· When asked about anti-social parking, the PCC reported that he had recruited a Road Safety Partnership Manager, Perry Payne, to convene partners to work together to tackle these issues.
· Cllr Steve Bucknell, Chairman of Wiltshire Police and Crime Panel highlighted that the Panel would be meeting the following day to scrutinise the PCC’s medium term financial strategy and the meeting would be available to watch online.