To receive a presentation from Paul Mills and Rachel Kirby on the ongoing work around the neighbourhood policing project and operational policing.
Minutes:
Rachel Kirby, Systems Thinking Lead gave a detailed presentation on the work of her team in reviewing customer access and getting knowledge of Wiltshire Police Systems.
The team had spent time gaining knowledge and understanding the current operations systems; and had developed a purpose statement, “Keep me safe and protect my community”, based on talking to members of the public and observed demand. Case studies had identified issues with handoffs, a number of different systems being used and the creation of preventable demand.
The police were presented with two options – to stay as they were or to move to redesign with testing. With the agreement of the police the principles of redesign were established from the check phase and the current focus is on developing a one stop ‘respond, resolve, record’, community focused approach for its customers. This will be tested live on new demand (a report of a theft) in the Trowbridge sector from 30 June 2014; the design will then be refined and further tested until it is fully robust in operational use. .This will in turn inform what roles and structures are required. Once capacity had been released, work will focus more on being proactive in preventing crime and addressing the root causes of crime and antisocial behaviour in our communities.
The Chief Constable, Pat Geenty congratulated the team on their work to date, highlighting that Wiltshire was the only force going through an end-to-end redesigning process. Existing systems had been built up over 170 years and it was hoped that silos would be broken down and staff would be put back into the community teams. He recognised the difficulty in transitioning from one system to another and hoped that the system would expand over time, providing information on why crimes were happening and moving the focus to prevention. He welcomed the support of the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner and the Wiltshire Public Service Board recognising the review would not work without public partnerships.
The Committee confirmed its support for the redesign, recognising the similarities between it and other projects.
When questioned on whether the redesign had the support of the Ministry of Justice, Mr Geenty noted that the permanent secretary would be visiting next week. Police on the front line had been engaged by the systems thinking team, involved in making changes and designing the right IT solution. A key part was training and ensuring it was right for the individual.
Mr Geenty noted that public satisfaction surveys had shown that Wiltshire Police were third best in the country for dealing with crime, increasing 7 points in the last 12 months. The relationship with the public was improving, possibly due to increased visibility.
The Committee thanked Rachel for her presentation.
Paul Mills gave a presentation on community engagement, including the purchase of community alert software called Neighbourhood Alert. This was currently used by Thames Valley Police who in two years had 80,000 members sign up to use it.
Neighbourhood Alert was free to sign up to, and allowed users to set preferences on the types of and frequency of messages they received. Messages could be targeted to geographical areas from county-wide to street level, or a cluster of homes. It could be used to send updates regarding crime prevention, community safety campaigns, events, news, meetings or good news stories.
It would reinvigorate Neighbourhood Watch, who had been involved in all aspects of the procurement process and would be rolled out in mid to end July to four pilot areas: Malmesbury, Pewsey, Warminster and Swindon West. Other benefits included improved communications, building trust and confidence, reduce incoming calls and reinvigorating other watch schemes. Other force areas used it and there was potential for cross-border work and for it to include other agencies in the future.
In response to questions it was confirmed that Wiltshire was working with the police as part of its digital strategy, and Neighbourhood Alert would be promoted through Area Boards and their community networks, Town and Parish Councils, resident’s associations, churches with all encouraged to sign up to it. Its scope could be widened to link in with health and other opportunities.
The Committee thanked Paul for his presentation.