Agenda item

The Police and Crime Commissioner to present a report on the progress made to deliver the priorities set out in the Police and Crime Plan 2013-17. These are:

·         Reducing crime and anti-social behaviour

·         Protecting the most vulnerable in society

·         Putting victims and witnesses first

·         Reducing offending and re-offending

·         Driving up standards of customer service

·         Ensuring unfailing and timely response to calls for help

·         Unlocking the resources to deliver (the priorities)

Members are asked to consider the performance information provided and comment as appropriate.

The Quarterly data (Q1) report was presented to the Panel by the Commissioner.

The Commissioner advised that for some time, he had had reservations about the use of targets to measure the performance of Wiltshire Police. It was widely agreed that target driven organisations can leave themselves open to perverse behaviour as managers seek to deliver the desired targets, almost at any cost.

These concerns were shared by a number of well respected national professional bodies, including the UK Statistics Authority. In January 2014, the authority announced that it was stripping the official ‘gold standard’ status from police recorded crime statistics. A month earlier, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police conceded that there was ‘cause for concern’ about police statistics.

The Chief Executive advised that a “Gate Keeping” process had been put in place by Wiltshire Police with an independent panel who now decided which incidents should be recorded as crimes and the category of those crimes.

Questions raised included:

If there were to be no targets how do we know that Wiltshire Police was doing its job to a good standard?

a.Wiltshire Police would continue to set targets and measure them.

How would you deal with Performance if no targets were set?

a.The Chairman advised that the OPPC had invited the PCP to become involved more with its Performance, with a task group looking at this topic.

Would the PCP have access to the decisions of the Gate Keeping Panel?

a.Yes. The panel’s decisions would be made available to the PCP.

Well done to Wiltshire Police for trying to get it right, but what about the other Police forces, how would Wiltshire’s statistics match against their’s?

a.Wiltshire Police wants its statistics to be a fair and accurate picture of what is happening in Wiltshire.

PCC Priority Scorecard 2014/15

The scorecard is graded as “Fair”, how do you get from “Fair” to “Good”?

a.The scorecard has a weighted score which is consistently applied.

Reducing Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB)

Public Opinion Survey - Results for the most recent survey conducted in early 2014 had recently been received by the Force and analysis would commence shortly. Therefore the results within this report are the same as published in the annual report last year?

a.Data for this was not available for this report, but the analysis would go into the next report.

Protecting the most vulnerable in society – the graph shows a difference of 44.4%?

a.This was a national figure and not just Wiltshire.

Putting victims and witnesses first

Neighbourhood Justice Panels – how many have been requested and Completed?

a.25 Neighbourhood Justice Panels had been requested with 17 local resolutions completed.

Victim Satisfaction – Why had the figure dipped and then risen?

a.The figure had to be looked at in context.

Driving up the standards of customer service

Prosecutions that fail due to the quality of Police input – What are Wiltshire Police doing to improve on this?

a.In the short term more Gatekeepers involved in the process, with fewer parties getting involved in the process.

Northumbria Complaints Recording Process - The OPCC has been to visit Northumbria and see for itself how this operates. When would the PCP get any feedback from this meeting?

a.A report on the Northumbria process would be circulated to the Panel at the next PCP meeting.

Unlocking the resources to deliver

Number of PCSOs – Are Wiltshire Police advertising PCSO recruitment at the Bourne Hill and Monkton Park hubs?

a.PCSO recruitment is widely advertised.

Why does the force lose PCSOs?

a.Some leave to have children, or become Police officers.

The Chairman asked if there was any interest from the PCP members as to sitting on a Police Performance Culture Review Working Group. Cllr Julian Johnson, Cllr Andrew Bennett and Chris Henwood advised that they would be happy to do this.

Resolved:

The Panel noted the report.