Jerry Herbert, Deputy Police & Crime Commissioner
Minutes:
Jerry Herbert, Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner gave a presentation on the proposed increase to the Police precept.
Police Estate – A formal announcement would be released tomorrow about a Police Officer touch down location at Downton Library. This would be a place for the Community Officers and PCSOs to drop in and take a comfort break, and be accessible from.
We need to pay for the Officers that help us to stay safe, this costs around £120 million per year. Only 60% of the funding comes from Central Government. We now know what the Home Office grant will be, but we still need to identify what we need to raise locally.
We are aiming to provide 49 new Officers next year and are currently working to recruit those. Community Policing is the most visible part of Policing to most people in Wiltshire. Next year we plan to continue with investment.
The proposal this year is to increase the Policing precept by £10 pa which works out to around 84p a month for the additional policing. This will enable us to increase the number of Officers and continue the good work in making Wiltshire one of the safest places to live.
The commissioner was running a consultation and it was live until noon tomorrow. There have been 3000 responses so far.
Questions and comments:
· How many officers would be allocated to the rural southern Wiltshire patch?
Answer: The Chief Constable decides where he will deploy his Officers. Pete may be able to say how many officers came in to his patch last year?
Pete – Your dedicated Officer’s for each area are listed in the Police update attached to the agenda.
· I made contact with the PCSO for our area, do you get your Officers to go to the local residents meetings?
Answer: Yes where we can we will come along. Please invite us so we know they are happening. We are very flexible.
· The Chairman noted that the Police & Crime Panel would next meet on 6 February, he asked for a show of hands of those present who would be in support of the increase. The majority present did support the proposal.
· John Blocksidge – Every year we see an increase and nothing improves. So when will all of these changes happen.
Answer: I am sorry if you feel things have not improved. We do have more Officers now in frontline roles. It is the role of those Officers and PCSOs to be visible in some of the local communities.
The changes to the training programme came from a National decision by the College of Policing. The majority of Officers will now enter the force on what is effectively an apprenticeship. There would be a 12-week tutorship period, and a 2-year probation period. During that time recruits would have a variety of other training. At the end of a 3-year period they would be accredited with a degree. They would be away slightly more than previously, but only a small amount. This was aimed to provide a better structured level of training.