Issue - meetings

Tidworth Area Board is pleased to welcome the Police & Crime Commissioner Philip Wilkinson OBE.

The board welcomed the Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Wilkinson OBE, who gave a verbal presentation.

Reference was given to the Annual Report that had been published prior to the meeting.

The PCC welcomed the rise in tickets being issued for driving offences due to increased enforcement, reiterating that with more PCSOs an emphasis on more proactive policing and an increased presence could be achieved.

The 101 Call Centre had reduced its call back time from 28 minutes down to 14 minutes.

The PCC expressed his frustration at the delay in delivery of the Mobile Police Stations.

Two areas of particular focus for improvement were a further reduction in rural crime, specifically hare coursing, and offering better support to victims of sexual offences through the Horizon Team.

The PCC had also uncovered a Claire’s Law incident, which the Chief Constable and PCC had begun to address and investigate negligence that will be reported to Policing Standards or potentially lead to criminal action.

Questions

It was clarified that more communication was necessary with local communities to inform them and their parish councils of ongoing investigations and their outcomes. Due to laws surrounding crimes, evidence and then the overall chance of conviction, some crimes do not see anyone charged but it was accepted that the reasons for this should be made clear to communities who had been affected.

Tidworth Area Board is pleased to welcome the Police & Crime Commissioner Philip Wilkinson OBE.

The board welcomed the Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Wilkinson OBE, who gave a verbal presentation.

Points to note:

The Police and Crime Commissioner had been in post for 2 years and described his main aim as to challenge the Wiltshire Police Force to perform better than it had been in order to reach the level it should be.

Wiltshire’s Police Force was described as having some fantastic police officers, which unfortunately had not been given the support and resources needed.

Four priorities were stated as central to the work of the PCC and his office:

• A more effective and efficient Police Force, including an improvement to response times.

• A reduction in violent crimes, specifically sexual crimes which has improved from a 2% conviction rate to over 11%, with the expectation that this figure will continue to improve. Drug crimes have also been prioritised through Operation Scorpion to focus on specific targets committing drug crimes. Wiltshire Council is now the top Force in county line drug disruption.

• Tackling crimes highlighted by the community, specifically road safety. Community Speedwatch was highlighted as really important to this priority and enforcement statistics had massively improved through ticketing and other enforcement actions. Antisocial behaviour was also highlighted as a community priority.

• Rural Crime. The local Rural Crime Unit had been given better equipment in the form of drones and night vision to better tackle specifically organised crime gangs committing rural crimes against farmers. Operation Ragwort was highlighted as a specific initiative to tackle this.

The board also welcomed the Chief Constable, Catherine Roper, who gave a verbal presentation.

Points to note:

The Chief Constable had been in post 6 months and described policing in Wiltshire as a situation where fantastic staff had earned her trust and confidence, however, operational issues had led to the force being graded poorly and placed in special measures. This was noted as largely being due to not recognising vulnerable persons and their challenges. Although Wiltshire is the safest county in the country, when incidents had occurred the response was not adequate.

The Chief Constable was very conscious that the foundations of Wiltshire Police needed to be rebuilt, and that as trust and confidence in the force had declined the morale within the force had declined as a result.

Rebuilding the fundamentals of Wiltshire Police would lead to being brought out of special measures. This included work already underway on the business-as-usual delivery plan, restructuring the senior management and performance frameworks and refocusing crime-tackling priorities.

Other areas of improvement included:

• Visibility on the roads to deter criminals.

• Recruitment activities, with emphasis given to opportunities for those in a gap year.

• The Evolve programme, allowing those most involved in day-to-day activity to give their views on where improvements can be made.

• Auditing and inspections, ensuring progress had been made through regular reports to the PCC. Every 6 months the Chief Constable and PCC attend Whitehall to face numerous questions and explain how improvements  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47