Meeting documents

The Chief Inspector greeted the Committee and introduced Inspector Andy Pritchard to the Members.  Previously she had prepared reports for the Committee, however, she thought the time would be better spent if she answered any questions raised by the Committee Members that were important to them and their constituents, instead of presenting information that might not be relevant to what the Committee wished to discuss.  She advised Members if there were any subjects that they wanted further details on, she was happy to take the requests away and respond to Members with the details.

The Chief Inspector then detailed the neighbourhood policing proposal that had been discussed previously and had now been restructured by the Chief Constable and Police and Crime Commissioner, who had invested in neighbourhood policing and believed it was the root to keeping our communities safe and engaged.  They had invested heavily in maintaining neighbourhood resource and had been asked to submit plans for what they thought was the best way to use the resources available to cover the geographical area of Somerset West.  The plan was agreed and had gone live as a Pilot scheme.  The area had been split into 19 zones and each had Police Community Support Officers (PCSO) who were responsible for all the problem solving and engagement in their area.  There were also 35 Police Constables who would then support the PCSO’s and assist them with their warrant powers.  The new plan meant that there was cover at all times to support the community.  The Police Officers (PO) had also been issued with new pieces of kit and lightweight laptops to enable them to carry out their work in the communities.

The Chief Inspector was aware of the issues being faced within Taunton town centre with the increased amounts of anti-social behaviour (ASB) and homelessness and that business owners and residents were concerned. 

During the discussion of this item, Members made comments and statements and asked questions which included:-

·         Members praised the hard work that the PCSO’s carried out in the communities.  They agreed that the new laptops enabled the officers to carry out their work in an agile manner and that they were making use of their bicycles to travel around their local area.

The Inspector thanked the Member for their comment and advised that due to the efficiencies created, PCSO’s should have more time to carry out their duties.

·         Members raised concern on the skateboarders in Castle Green and mentioned that when they had tackled them, they had responded by saying they had not caused any damage and that the Police had said it was ok to use the area.  A further concern was raised on cyclist’s behaviour and queried how cyclists could be encouraged to use the Highway Code.

There was a time that PO’s could deal with the lower level ASB concerns, but she was aware that there were opportunities to improve efficiencies in processes which could spare up PO’s time to deal with ASB concerns.  She suggested that the signage in the town could be improved. 

·         Members queried how the public found out which Facebook page the PO’s used and suggested that the use of social media should be promoted.

The Police website gave information about the local PO’s and their contact details.  It also gave the details of what the Police priorities in the local area were.  Not all PCSO’s had Facebook pages, it was up to the individual whether they wanted to use social media or not.

·         Members queried how the recruitment for the Special Constables was progressing.

There were 58 full time equivalent PCSO positions available, but currently there were 50 in post.  They were recruiting for PCSO’s at present and welcomed any applications and if the Members knew of anybody that was interested, that they could be signposted.

·         Members requested details on the crime trends, but understood that it was missing due to the lack of administrative support.

The crime statistics were stored centrally and were accessible to PO’s to distribute to Members.  If there were any specific figures that Members wanted, the Chief Inspector could obtain them and report back.

·         Members requested that the Police reported to the Committee every six months to gain some continuity in the information being reported.

·         Concern was raised on the delay or lack of response from PO’s to members of the public when they contacted them.

Historically if there was a community issue that was not urgent, the beat manager would have taken ownership of it, however, if they then had four rest days, it wouldn’t be addressed until they returned to work, which caused the delay.  There were more PCSO’s available now, so they could deal with the non-urgent issues quicker for the members of the public.  The shift pattern had also changed for PCSO’s and meant they had less rest days, which was an improvement from a service point of view and allowed them more time to take ownership of issues rather than passing them to their senior officers.  The Inspector wanted to keep and improve on continuity of service in the local area, so they tried to keep PCSO’s in post for about two to three years.

·         Members had previously asked about the service called Lighthouse that provided support to people who had been a victim of hate crime.  Concern was raised that there was a six week waiting list for assistance and they requested an update.

The Lighthouse service had lost staff in line with the efficiency savings so they had implemented a different structure now.  There were more PO’s and Detectives who were reviewing cases, as there were less frontline staff.  They had a good business plan which appeared to be progressing well and they had received positive reports on their performance.

·         Concern was raised that members of the public were reporting crimes on social media and not directly to the Police because they perceived that nothing would happen.  Members suggested that the Police should post regular updates on their social media sites to inform the public of what had been achieved in the area which would improve the perception in the service provided by the Police.

PO’s were trying to improve the use of social media and were trying to free up officers time to enable them to do this.  PCSO’s had been prompted to contact local community hubs and other local agencies to find out where the communication gaps were and ask how they would like information to be fed back.  A survey had gone out to the Parish Councils and asked what they would like and what they thought of the service in their local area.   

·         Concern was raised that if a survey had gone to Parish Councils, a large section of Taunton town centre was unparished and so therefore they would not have had the survey.  Members requested a copy of the survey so they could circulate it to the unparished areas.

·         Members queried how they could help combat ASB and homelessness issues in the area.

Sadly there was potential for the issues to get worse before they got better due to funding cuts.  However, these were multi-agency problems and it involved collaborative working to resolve them.  Each agency were doing their best with the resources they had available.

·         Concern was raised about phishing schemes and loan sharks and suggested that there should be a central portal to report such incidents.

The local PCSO’s could support vulnerable residents to help prevent them being subjected to crime, however, cyber-crime has become very sophisticated and had been passed over to a central agency to tackle the issues rather than local Police forces. 

·         Members queried why cautions were not issued to more people to act as a precaution and prevent further crime, for example young people skateboarding at Castle Green.

The Police were minded not to criminalise young people because this could affect there opportunities for the future with job prospects and further education.  The skateboarders could be told to move to a more suitable area rather than being issued a caution.

·         Concern was raised about the policing standard in some of the rural areas.  Some Members had not seen any PO’s in their rural villages and highlighted that crime still occurred in those areas and not just in the town centres. 

The Chief Inspector was aware that there were issues within the rural villages and was keen to address them and was happy to take any suggestions from Members on how to improve the situation.  In West Somerset, cluster meetings were held, where the Chairs of the local Parish and Town Councils attended along with the Police, Highways and other agencies to discuss local concerns.

·         Concern was raised that there was a perception that the public did not feel safe walking around the town due to ASB issues and what could be done to rectify that.

The PO’s had ensured that CCTV had been installed in key areas and business forums had been used to address some of the concerns.  She advised the Committee that the Somerset West area was one of the safest places to live in the country and had some of the lowest crime figures and lowest amount of serious violent crime reported.

·         Members highlighted that there were additional resources available out in the communities that could assist with investigations, which included the use of CCTV footage from residential dwellings.

·         Concern was raised on the public perception of crime and highlighted that there was a big difference between actual crime figures and perceived crime figures.  Members suggested that work needed to be carried out on tackling crime perception. 

·         Members queried what could be done to improve community policing.

The Chief Inspector was aware that the Council was going through Transformation and advised that the Police had just been through a similar project which had impacted on the service delivery.  She advised that partnership working needed to be improved which would take some time due to the loss of the designated Community Safety Officer role within the Council.

·         Members queried whether more could be done with premise licence holders and the enforcement of the rule that prevented the sale of alcohol to people that were intoxicated and whether that could help alleviate some of the ASB pressures within the town centre.

The Police had worked with Licensing Groups to try and tackle those sorts of issues.

·         The Portfolio Holder for Community Leadership thanked the PO’s for their attendance and was pleased that they had given a brief verbal update which then allowed for a longer question and answer session for Members.

Resolved: that the Committee noted the update report.