Agenda item

To receive a presentation from Inspector Mark Bridges on the Community Engagement Plan.

The Committee received a presentation from Inspector Mark Bridges on the Community Engagement Plan. He outlined that their aim was to be able to engage with the public in order to prevent and detect crime and pursue offenders. They wanted to provide support to all victims of anti-social behaviour and support the elderly and vulnerable in order to help them feel safe and secure. The Force wanted to engage with the community in the hope that they would support them and share information and intelligence and also in an effort to build greater confidence and security in local communities. Inspector Bridges advised the Committee that to carry out the engagement plan they needed to communicate with Councillors and a number of people in the community in order for it to be effective.

The presentation provided the Committee with an outline of performance of the Waverley Safer Neighbourhood Team and operations and campaigns recently carried out as well as looking forward to future ones. The presentation is attached at Annexe 1 to these minutes.

In relation to performance the Committee noted that although there was an 8% increase in offences recorded in Waverley over the previous financial year the number of positive outcome rates decreased by 4.1% points to 13.4%. This compares with a Forcewide increase of 8.1% over the previous financial year and a decrease in positive outcome rates of 4.8%. Nationally (March 2017) – At Force level, Surrey were 8th lowest at 53.7 crimes per thousand population and also 1st within its most similar forces. Members were pleased that the number of incidents of violent crime had decreased by 12.6% over the last year , nationally Surrey was rated 2^nd lowest at 5.3 crimes per thousand population and also 2nd within its most similar forces. The Committee was disappointed to note that the number of incidences of domestic burglary had increased by 40.6% (71 offences) but was pleased that the levels of vehicle crime, sexual offences and antisocial behaviour had all decreased.

The Committee was advised that the Community Engagement Plan was in place so the police engaged where there was a “clear policing purpose” and to meet the needs of the community. This plan had been written with consideration given to The Policing Vision 2025 document by The APCC and NPCC, the College of Policing, recent HMIC Inspection and local Borough community knowledge and its demands. Engagement Plans aimed to empower and engage local people and acknowledged the importance of communication with those most likely to be affected by services, policies and decisions. Inspector Bridge advised that the Force used to do a lot of communication through fetes and schools and then, because of resources, had to reduce this. They ideally wanted to find a position in between this and “in the know” was a key to their success and any encouragement from Councillors and the public to enrol would be good so that there could be two way communication. The Committee was encouraged to sign up to the site (www.intheknow.community) and it was suggested that a workshop could be arranged for discussion/action group to look further into any ideas of how to improve engagement.

The Committee thanked Inspector Mark Bridges for his presentation and looked forward to hear more at a future meeting.