Agenda item

Surrey Police

Detective Inspector Allick James, Surrey Heath Borough Commander, gave a presentation in respect of his role as new Borough Commander and the Challenges facing Surrey Police in Surrey Heath.

Inspector James joined Surrey Heath and brought significant experience from his background in investigations and working with Chief Constables on their respective criminal justice and neighbourhood policing portfolios.

In his role as Borough Commander, Inspector James had the goal of making Surrey Heath Residents, ‘Being Safe and Feeling Safe’, via formal and informal engagement with the community and the prioritisation of prevention. The overarching prevention focus would take the form of the concentration of resources on the most vulnerable groups and people, and in the most dangerous locations according to statistics. In addition it was key to focus and target the activities of repeat offenders, drug abusers and those highlighted by the Prevent strategy. This was intertwined with implementation of a problem solving approach to work with the community to make early interventions.

Operation Apollo was run as Surrey Police’s response to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Particular attention was paid to the analysis of the peak times and locations for Anti-Social behaviour instances which had gone up during the pandemic. This analysis fed into active patrols, which engaged, explained and encouraged dispersal of groups before the implementation of fixed penalty notices; as well as specifically focussed social media messages.

In addition there was an awareness of risk during the lockdown that many victims were potentially trapped in homes with their abusers; with supermarkets and pharmacies being their only sanctuary. As a result Surrey Police maintained more of a presence at supermarkets in order to pick up cases of domestic abuse.

Looking forward, a Youth Engagement Officer and 2 safer neighbourhood specialists were in the process of being recruited to the safer neighbourhood team; in addition to the future planned use of analysts whom were part of the wider prevention of harm strategy.

Following Members’ questions and comments the following points were noted:

·         There was a perception from Members’ constituents that Surrey Police took little action in relation to low level crimes and this in turn discouraged the reporting of such crimes. It was acknowledged by Inspector James that such patterns of low-level crime caused ‘harm’, and fear amongst communities and whilst residents visited certain locations. Inspector James planned to tackle these patterned instances of low level crime by specifically targeting locations where crime takes place and the specific times.

·         There was a chance of a rise in crime levels as a result of a potential economic downturn. Surrey Police was continuing to monitor the crime statistics, to identify any such trends which may develop. In addition the structures set up by Operation Apollo encouraged intelligence sharing across the organisation which allowed for an overarching analysis of crime rates.

·         There had been a case of door to door scammers on the Old Dean; which in future could be tackled by PCSOs carrying out preventative work in the form of warning local residents of scammers in the local area by both door to door methods and via social media.

·         Engagement work needed to be undertaken in areas where reports of crime and ASB were low potentially showing high levels of disengagement. It was acknowledged that there was great value in community engagement events to allow for communities to get to know and trust their PCSOs. Inspector James had meetings in the pipeline to discuss ways to improve the current engagement strategy.

·         Despite this, it was reminded to Members that the best way to report non-emergency crimes was to report them through Surrey Police’s contact centre, to ensure efficient recording and management of resources.

·         Relationships between Councillors and individual Officers had changed; and as a result it would be useful for Councillors to be sent round the details for the specific officers covering their individual wards.

·         Engagement with the Surrey Police social media pages, in particular with younger residents. In addition there was an appetite for a fostering of two way dialogue between residents and the Local Neighbourhood Team on social media; rather than a one way feed of information from Surrey Police.

The Committee thanked Inspector James for informative presentation and update.