To receive a presentation from Chief Superintendent Simon Williams, on the “Blueprint for Essex Policing”. He will set out the proposals of the Chief Constable of Essex for the future structure of Policing within Essex and how these will affect this District. County Councillor Anthony Jackson will also be attending the meeting to put the view of Essex County Council.
This is a very important issue and all Members are invited to attend. The presentation will be of particular interest to members of the Safer, Cleaner and Greener Standing Scrutiny Panel and the Safer Communities Partnership.
Minutes:
The Chairman welcomed Chief Superintendant Simon Williams, Essex Police and County Councillor Anthony Jackson, Chairman of Essex Police Authority. They were there to inform the Committee on their ‘Blueprint for Essex Policing’, the future of policing in Essex.
The ‘Blueprint’ was to reconfigure the operational services across the force to improve productivity, increase availability and reduce cost. The changes were to be in place by March 2012.
They are tasked with making reoccurring revenue savings of approximately £41 million per year by 2014/15 and have already made savings of £20 million. The main facts were that even though the plan was to have 388 fewer officers by 2014 with reorganisation it is envisaged that there will be about an extra 55 officers in the front line of the Local Policing Areas. Essex Police are also in collaboration in joint working practices with Kent Police. They have a joint IT department, procurement team, joint head of transport and plans to extend this to other support services. They are looking to make further savings in such area as uniforms and transport. Such a scale of savings would inevitably mean a reduction in the number of police officers and PCSOs and backroom staff.
The ‘Blueprint’ will put into effect five commands, these will be:
Significant improvements can be made by borderless policing, better use of technology, better use of intelligence, better matching of resources to demand and reduced management costs (looking for 25% reduction in senior management costs).
Geographically, they will create three Local Policing Areas (LPAs); LPA North; LPA South and LPA West. Stansted Airport will have its own command. Each will be under the command of a Superintendant who will be responsible for neighbourhood policing, community safety and partnership working. This would provide focus, delivering high quality neighbourhood policing services and excellence in working with local authorities and other community safety partners. They would respond to general policing duty incidents and would create new Community Safety Units. New ‘Youth Officers’ will replace the Safer Schools Partnership officers and will be given a wider role in making early interventions to prevent costly enforcement later. The LPAs will be proactive in dealing with anti social behaviour in the community. New Community Safety Units will be created, headed by an Inspector with responsibility for the Youth Officers, Licensing, Crime Reduction Officers, Essex Watch, Anti-Social Behaviour Officers and other vital partnership functions.
Under the ‘Blueprint’ there will be dedicated officers responsible solely for investigations. These officers will be based locally but operate within a single force wide command. They will split into the following teams: Area Investigation Teams will investigate offences such as criminal damage, theft and minor assault. Target Offender Teams will respond to and investigate burglaries and street robberies. Finally, Serious Crime Teams will deal with a range of offences that fall outside the remit of specialist units.
In collaboration with Kent Police they have the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate leading on Major Crime, serious organised Crime, Forensics, covert human intelligence sources and covert support including surveillance.
Also in collaboration with Kent Police they will share support services such as procurement, a joint IT department, and joint Heads of Transport, Finance, HR and Training for both forces.
Police Officers from PCs to Chief Inspectors will increase by 12%, from 472 to 527, unfortunately PCSOs numbers will drop from 465 to 362, hopefully managed by natural wastage. In total the ‘Blueprint’ will make a reduction of about 400 officers in Essex.
The meeting was then opened out for questions.
Q: It had been said recently that there are too many officers are employed as backroom staff and not enough are on the street. How will this balance out?
A: We will make better use of IT for backroom work. Police Officers are required to take statements and examine a crime scene. We are investing in tablets that hold the forms electronically, and has signature capture. We can also put some technology in their cars making it more of a mobile office.
Q: Where will the proposed extra officers come from?
A: They are changing the job description of the uniformed officers, freeing up their time and putting in special response officers who will not have case work to take forward, making their response times quicker.
Q: I note you are looking at 14 to 15% reductions by 2015 and take your word that the proposed structural changes will work. Would be better if you could implement these changes and not make the reductions in staff?
A: I agree, but saving have to be made and it has given us the opportunity to examine our working practices.
Q: Would the numbers of PCSOs that we partly fund be maintained?
A: We need to manage the numbers by natural wastage. If it is a part funded post they will be maintained.
Q: Acknowledging that savings had to be made, there seems to be an enormous reduction in officer numbers. This perception will be very difficult to explain to residents and although now the police have an excellent relationship with the public it would be difficult to maintain. The perception is too many backroom officers and not enough front line staff. Forces are now top heavy, how would the new structure improve the service?
A: There will be a 12% increase in the lower ranks (PCs to Chief Inspectors). Civilian roles will be examined; we have already slimmed down in this area. Essex Police has saved £20 million by doing this and we have ploughed this money back. The new role of response officers would enable us to work more efficiently.
Q: Your best resources are members of the public I hope this will not change.
A: As do I.
Q: Essex Police is the best performing force in terms of cost per head of population – has this been recognised by the government, in that less efficient forces should take bigger cuts. And, will this ‘Blueprint’ be reviewed in the future?
A: The Government had applied a broad brush cut across all the forces and have not taken into account past spending or savings. As for a review, it is more efficient to review each function as a continuing process. Also a Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) will be introduced next year who will be monitoring performance. The Police Authority would set a budget and the PCC will be reviewing it.
Q: What guarantee do we have that the PCC will agree this ‘Blueprint’ outlined here tonight, and will we have to go through this again next year?
A: We are not sure how the PCC will work as yet, but there will be no change to the operational independence of the Chief Constable. He is the one who decides how to organise his force. The PCC can say they want to change the priorities but not the organisation.
Q: What reassurance would you give on the closures of police stations.
A: Any services currently being delivered will still be delivered in another guise, things will just look a bit different.
Q: Will Loughton Police Station shut down?
A: No, it will not be closing.
Q: I understand that you are working with Kent Police, but what about our other boarders, with Hertfordshire and the Metropolitan Police. Will there be a time when we have borderless policing with Herts. and the Met. areas.
A: We already have the capacity to cross border police. We have protocols in place where we share intelligence with the Met Police. This will not disappear under the new terms.
Q: The police spend a vast amount of time in direct contact with the public, and there is a wish to see more police but they also want a more responsible use of their time. Is there too much form filling nowadays?
A: We are constantly reviewing what we need to record. Officers need to record evidence and intelligence; these are elements that we can never get away from.
Q: I represent a rural area and I am concerned about your coverage in rural areas. Also, is Stansted Airport fully public funded?
A: The BAA pay for Stansted. As for rural areas, we have maintained patrols that have designated patrol areas based on crime hot-spots.
Q: Loughton Police Station, it is right to say that it is not closing but it is reducing its opening hours?
A: The station will continue to have officers based there 24 hours a day. But the front counter service will be reduced in opening hours, from 12noon to 6pm. Most people tend to report a crime over the phone. They had surveyed and prioritised the use made of front counters and found that very few people use them. We are just responding to this survey and opening when people want to use it. We will always respond to emergency calls.
Q: Parking and speeding seem to be low priorities; it would make a difference to see someone doing something about this. Parking on pavements is a police matter.
A: This is not just a policing issue, parking has been decriminalised, however if there’s a crime or an obstruction to the highway we will act.
Q: Traffic Division provision had not been mentioned as yet, what changes will happen to this section?
A: This has not gone away; it will fall within our Response Control Command. We are developing more officers to be involved in this specialism.
Q: You have told us about front counter closures at Waltham Abbey and Ongar, but what about Limes Farm. Also, how would you measure the success of the reforms?
A: As I said Epping and Loughton will continue to operate from 12 to 6pm, however Waltham Abbey and Ongar will close, but we are exploring using other buildings such as fire stations, Libraries, Supermarkets or mobile Police stations. As for Limes Farm, it is not a permanently staffed Police Station, it’s an office in a house, and this will not change.
As for measuring success, we will use KPIs and regularly review our Action Plans.
Q: Buckhurst Hill currently has a Neighbourhood Action Plan meeting at the Waitrose Store, will it continue?
A: Yes.
Q: I represent a rural area. My fear is that with borderless policing, the police will be drawn to the heavily populated areas. Will these changes be phased in or done all at once.
A: Areas will still have their dedicated officers, only the additional support is borderless. We have started the changes in the Thurrock area, with extra support going in as and when necessary, this is being closely monitored. So we are phasing the changes in.
Q: Will Essex Police still be in a position to be able to respond in times of civil unrest.
A: We have a national commitment around the number of officers that need to be trained around public disorder issues. We already train above this national requirement and will continue to do so and will be able to deal with a variety of unrest.
The Chairman closed this item and thanked Chief Superintendant Simon Williams and Councillor Anthony Jackson for spending quite some time answering questions. It was much appreciated.