PCC holds her first PCC Accountability Meeting

PCC Sarah Taylor held her first PCC Accountability Meeting (PAM) on Monday, 22 July at her offices at Police Headquarters in Wymondham.

The purpose of the PAM is for the PCC to hold the Chief Constable to account by discussing issues and making decisions in public.

For each quarterly meeting, Norfolk residents can send in questions on policing and crime for the PCC to ask the Chief Constable and his team.

The PCC was pleased to see 17 questions posed by the public and hopes to see this increase further over her term in office.

Sarah said: “I just wanted to start by saying thank you to everyone who submitted questions. I had seventeen submitted, which I understand is quite substantially higher than what has been the norm, which has generally been between four to eight at these meetings, so I really welcome that. And I would like to think, if we could, that increasing that number would help to encourage a good two-way flow of communications between this office and the public. That would certainly be ambitious but a real advance.”

A full recording of the public questions can be viewed here .The questions submitted by the public included some distinct themes, such as:

Enforcement of Public Spaces Protection Order regarding anti-social driving in Britannia Road, Norwich and wanting to know what is being done around breaches of the order and responsibility for acting on these breaches. 

The Chief Constable outlined that prosecutions lie with Norwich City Council, however, he noted that the Constabulary does have a role in collecting evidence on breaches.  The Chief Constable then went on to outline the escalation process of engagement and education and further breaches leading to potential prosecution by Norwich City Council.

The Chief Constable discussed the ongoing trial in Great Yarmouth of an acoustic noise camera and, if successful, this could prove to be a useful tool moving forward to tackling anti-social driving.

In addition, the Chief Constable outlined the role of Operation OCTANE which is a partnership response with the Constabulary to target individuals regarding dangerous use of vehicles and driving in an anti-social manner.  The Chief Constable also said that from the public questions received here today it was clear that they want more to be done on this issue.

The PCC was interested to know the pilot timeline for the acoustic camera as she noted that there were a lot of public questions regarding anti-social driving, and this was agreed to be followed up in the next PAM.

The community’s involvement in reporting issues on Britannia Road was also another element within the public questions and the PCC wanted the Chief Constable to provide guidance on how best for the public to engage on this issue.  The Chief Constable advised that the preferred methods were to either telephone 101 or to use the live chat function via the Norfolk Constabulary website as this would ensure the issues raised were picked up and addressed by the Police.

Road safety for cyclists and Operation Close Pass on the B1145 in Bawsey and this commuting route being too dangerous for cyclists to use and what can be done to make those roads safer.  The PCC asked the Chief Constable what work the Constabulary was doing to make these roads safer.

The Chief Constable confirmed that Operation Close Pass involves the prosecution of drivers for not providing adequate space to road cyclists.  The Chief Constable was not aware of any issues at this location.  The PCC asked what advice he would give to the public on reporting those concerned moving forward.  The Chief Constable highlighted that the local priority setting meeting would be the route for residents to raise their concerns so that the police could then consider what attention was needed which could include the use of Operation Close Pass.

A member of the public had applied to be a Special Constable and had passed the assessment but then recruitment of Special Constables had been stopped.  The Chief Constable confirmed that recruitment had been momentarily paused but was due to recommence soon.  The pause was due to a review that was being undertaken to look at how specials are recruited and deployed across the organisation as they are not a free resource and come with associated costs, particularly the kit they use.  Due to the use of public money, it is important that the Constabulary reviews this.  In addition, the College of Policing has recently revised specials training, so the local training needs to be reviewed again. 

Everyone who has applied to be a Special Constable should have been advised of the current circumstances of the pause in the recruitment and the Chief Constable will ensure that this is followed up with the member of the public who posed the question.

Welfare and support of officers and staff dealing with traumatic events.  The PCC was keen to understand what provisions are in place for newly qualified officers and staff to ensure adequate support is in place.

The Chief Constable advised that officers can often encounter hostility and violence when conducting their duties and his duty to them is to make sure appropriate workplace health provision is made available.  The Chief Constable acknowledged the work that his officers do day in and day out and recognised the daily challenges they faced.

Norfolk Constabulary is the only force who that3 added an extra 15 weeks at the end of a police constable’s tutor period with the community support unit.  This affords them with much higher supervision levels and controlled exposure to risk and slowly introduces them to both the challenges and risks of policing to help prepare officers for their future role.

There is dedicated work placed health provision in place and this can be accessed 24/7 and there is also a trauma risk integrated management system in place.  A wellbeing champions network exists across the Constabulary and signposting of information on the intranet to employees is provided along with health initiatives and campaigns.  The Chief Constable acknowledged that the force is much better at signposting staff to support.

Dissatisfaction with how the Constabulary is dealing with Stalking and whether they have a dedicated stalking unit as Cheshire do. The Chief Constable advised that there is no dedicated stalking unit, but they do have a Domestic Abuse Partnership Perpetrator Approach (DAPPA) team who deal with high risk and high harm perpetrators.  The functions of this team are to proactively manage stalking protection orders and provides victims with a dedicated point of contact.

An online reporting mechanism for stalking has been developed and this will get a priority response from the Force Control Room.  In addition, the domestic abuse risk assessment tool has been upgraded and will now direct police officers to a separate stalking risk assessment process.

Training has also recently been provided for police supervisors (Sergeants and Inspectors) to educate them on the available powers and how to make best use of them.

The Chief Constable undertook to review the Cheshire Constabulary model that was referenced in the public question.

Following the question-and-answer session between the PCC and the Chief Constable on the public questions, the PAM then went on to review the progress by the Constabulary on delivering against the policing priorities in the current Police, Crime and Community Safety Plan.

The PCC noted the work that has been done in partnership by the Constabulary regarding Right Care Right Person (RCRP) but wanted to understand current performance of the roll out within the Constabulary.

ACC Davison explained that the College of Policing did a quality assurance of the RCRP project prior to launch and the PCC said she was content that the pre-work was robust.

ACC Davison explained that, following the ‘go live’ at the end of May, daily meetings with partners took place for the first three weeks of operation.  Partners advised that daily meetings were not required so monthly partnership meetings remain in place.

Police attendance for concerns for welfare prior to RCRP adoption was 55% attendance, as of 11 July latest figures showed 46% attendance.  The project team had anticipated a 10% reduction, so performance is as modelled but does show that the police are attending where there is a clear police role.

The Chief Constable wanted to reassure that the police are attending incidents, and that an assessment is conducted through the RCRP model to ensure that the police attend where they can add value. As the figures demonstrate, they are still attending calls for concerns for welfare.

Whilst discussing the forces performance on call handling, the Chief Constable highlighted the challenge on achieving a balance between answering the volume of call demand and the length of the calls when control room staff are trying to extract the information required to conduct the risk assessments.

ACC Dean outlined the challenges and impact on the Victim and Witness Support team due to the delays in the judiciary system and the high workload and volume of cases that the team are dealing with.

Eleven extra staff were recruited into this team post Covid to deal with the backlog because of the court delays but it is acknowledged this is a requirement for the near future. The PCC, assured by ACC Dean, that the wellbeing of the staff within that team is being monitored due to the significant workloads they are experiencing.

The Chief Constable went on to reiterate the challenges that the Constabulary faces, trying to keep victims and witnesses engaged whilst there are significant court delays and the additional cost pressures it places on the Constabulary.

The PCC wanted to express her substantial concern about this issue and the continual delays generated by the court backlog and will look to lobby at a national level to try and tackle this issue.

The next meeting will take place on Tuesday, 8 October 2024 from 10am at the PCC’s Office in Wymondham. There will be an opportunity for members of the public to attend the meeting to observe and to submit a question to the PCC ahead of the next meeting.  Further details will follow in due course.