a) Parish Councils and Community groups
b) Community Policing – local issues and priorities
In attendance: PC Matt Holland
Minutes:
The following updates were received:
a) Parish Councils and Community Groups
There were none.
b) Community Policing – Inspector Pete Sparrow
Sector Inspector Sparrow drew attention to the following points, as detailed in his written report circulated at the meeting:
· It has been a very busy few weeks for south west Policing teams. Following the terrorism incidents, in Manchester and Westminster, there had been a significant change to the way Policing was carried out.
· The national threat level had been raised to severe, this meant that a terrorist attack was highly likely.
· Such threats would be targeted around crowded spaces and iconic structures. Armed Officers had been deployed to patrol the streets in Salisbury. There was no intelligence to say there was a specific threat for our area, however we remain alert. Community information was vital.
· There had been a manhunt for an escaped convict from Salisbury District Hospital. Two security guards were overpowered by a man yielding a razor blade to escape. He was found by a member of the community, who had spotted him, identified and reported him.
A new tactic had been used in the search, the drone with heat seeking cameras, as this was of a better quality that the helicopter. The amount of area they covered had saved a lot of time.
Despite being found near to the hospital, there had been 30 sightings from as far away as Yorkshire. Pete stressed that it was important that if people thought they saw something, then they should report it, so the Police make a judgement whether or not to act on it.
· There had been reports in the national media of a big drug issue with the Xannex, an anti-anxiety drug highly used in America. This drug was not available on the NHS in the UK. There had been 20 cases of children being taken to hospital after taking the drug in a two-week period. Pete urged schools and parents to talk to their children and explain the dangers of this drug.
· There was an issue with the time of calls to the 101 number being handled after having been answered. Due to the quantity of calls the operators need to filter, to ensure Police Officers were free for the emergencies that come in.
· Wiltshire Police was having a huge recruitment drive in all areas. The largest area of recruitment was for call handling operators, with progress in other fields. Five new Police Officers would be joining Salisbury.
Questions and comments included:
· The Police Commissioner has spent £1m on recruiting 500 new Specials, how do you propose to use them in your patch? Answer: We would be allocated 50 for the whole of Salisbury, ten per shift, they would become deployable as any other Officer. Recruitment was ongoing.
· When you talk of Officers for Salisbury, that is a different community area to ours, what would we get in Southern Wiltshire? Answer: When I talk about Salisbury it was the entire South Wiltshire. The Officers would be allocated to the teams in the community areas with some in southern Wiltshire.
· How did you cover early morning and late night patrols rurally? Answer: Each team had 5 Officers, each was given a rural area. Across the 5 teams you have areas specifically targeted to being on location in rural areas, so when there are not immediate issues they should be patrolling in those locations. I am constantly looking for contact points in the community which can be used by the Officers.
· The Police and Crime Panel, was due to visit the control centre the following day, to look at why there was such a perception that calls were not answered quickly, as actually most calls were answered within 3 seconds. Answer: It was about who deals with the call, the passing to the crime department. Calls were initially answered on time, but the it was during the second part, when people were put on hold to be transferred that delays happened.
With regards to Community Policing and Neighbourhood Watch, one of the tragedies was that a lot of people did not consider themselves signed up to it. Everyone had a responsibility, and if Community Policing was going to work we must all feed in. Answer: It works alongside the Community Messaging scheme, which gives out weekly updates. If you are not signed up to it, please do.