Agenda and minutes

1. The Scrutiny Research Officer asked for nominations for Chair of the Kent

and Medway Police and Crime Panel.

2. Mr Meade proposed, and Cllr Feacey seconded, that Mr Hill be elected

Chair of the Kent and Medway Police and Crime Panel. No other nominations

were received.

RESOLVED that Mr Hill be elected Chair of the Kent and Medway Police and Crime

Panel.

1. The Chair proposed, and Mrs Bolton seconded, that Mr Sandher be elected

Vice-Chair of the Kent and Medway Police and Crime Panel. No other

nominations were received.

RESOLVED that Mr Sandher be elected Vice-Chair of the Kent and Medway Police and Crime Panel.

1.    The Scrutiny Research Officer outlined the following changes to the membership of the Kent and Medway Police and Crime Panel:

- Cllr Eddie Peake had replaced Cllr Lauren Edwards as the representative of Medway Council.

-Cllr Astra Birch had replaced Cllr Nancy Warne as the representative of Tunbridge Wells Borough Council.

-Cllr Stuart Jeffery had replaced Cllr Parfitt-Read as the representative of Maidstone Borough Council.

-Cllr Pat Makinson no longer represented Thanet District Council. A replacement would be notified from Thanet District Council.

2.    Apologies were received from:

-Cllr Connie Nolan

-Cllr Charlotte Zosseder

-Cllr Astra Birch

-Cllr Eddie Peake.

1.    Mr Feacey declared that he was Chairman of Ashford Volunteer Centre.

1.    The Chair informed the Panel that, following the letter that the Panel sent to the former Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Fire (The Rt Hon Chris Philp MP)  about the need to review the funding formula for police forces across England and Wales, he had received a reply from the Minister confirming that the Government was working to introduce new funding arrangements.

2.    The Chair proposed that a similar letter be sent to the current Home Secretary (The Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP) and the current Chancellor of the Exchequer (The Rt Hon Rachel Reeves MP) to reiterate the need to review the funding formula for police forces across England and Wales, and secure a continuing commitment from the new Government. Mr Palmer seconded the proposal.

3.    A Member suggested that the draft letter be circulated to all the Members of the Panel so that they could provide feedback and comments before it was sent. The Panel agreed.

RESOLVED: that the minutes of the meeting held on 6 February 2024 were an accurate record. That a letter that reiterated the need to review the funding formula for police forces across England and Wales be sent from the Panel to the current Home Secretary and Chancellor of Exchequer.

1.    The Commissioner introduced the report and explained that the Review itself was first commissioned in February 2022 with the objective of improving the Force's neighbourhood policing while, at the same time, accruing savings. This would have an impact on over 30 roles, with about 500 people affected - including officers, staff as well as managers. There was extensive engagement within the Force in order to understand people's challenges, and research was carried out to analyse the neighbourhood models of other police forces. The Commissioner explained that he wanted to make sure that the offer to the public was as good as, if not better, than the previous arrangement.

2.    The Commissioner referred to the model in the update report, which indicated the number of police officers and staff in this new structure. This included: ‘Beat Officers’ who had geographical personal ownership of Wards; the Child Centred Policing team and; Neighbourhood Taskforces. The rural policing team saw a very small uplift of 1 PS and 6.5 PCSOs. The work of the PCSOs focused particularly on engagement and crime prevention, which had been well received by the rural community.

3.    In terms of implementation, the model was mostly on track, with 84% of Beat Officers, 80% of the Child Centred Policing team and 100% of the Neighbourhood Taskforce's in place. All but one of the Rural uplift posts were also delivered. It was anticipated that the model itself would be completed by September 2024, and recruitment of PCSOs was ongoing in order to support that.

4.    The Commissionerwas pleased to have received both written and anecdotal positive feedback from members of the community about the impact the individual officers were having in their communities. He also paid tribute to the Special Constabulary, as they had been very proactive in supporting the Neighbourhood Policing Model.

5.    The Chairman commented that he had received very good feedback from the local residents of his Division. He asked how the Neighbourhood Taskforces fitted into the geographical and managerial structure.

a.    The Commissioner replied that the Taskforces were based in each Kent District, and each District Chief Inspector would be responsible for the deployment of their own Taskforce. The approach was to focus on each issue and to engage with local residents and business in order to address it. This method had been piloted previously and had a positive impact.

6.    In answer to a question about how to make sure that the model was not centralised and responded to local need, the Commissioner explained that the work of Beat Officers was focused on local problem solving and that they should not be moved around from teams outside of their district. They were not part of central Partnerships teams, which was where more centrally-based command and control would take place. The schools’ teams and the Rural team were more centrally based because they were better able to coordinate their activity, nonetheless the emphasis was on local problem solving with local analysis - a demand-led model.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 120.

1.    The Commissioner paid tribute to all members of staff and officers who worked hard in the Criminal Justice System to support victims and witnesses. He clarified that the report and the concerns that it raised were not a negative reflection on them.

2.    He also reported that he had received positive feedback on the effectiveness of the Kent Criminal Justice Board, that he chaired.

3.    In terms of the reasons behind the significant backlog in court caseload, he explained that, as a result of the impact and disruptions caused by the Pandemic, the caseload had more than doubled since then.

4.    In terms of staffing levels, there was a shortage of both judges and legal advisers. If more judges and legal advisers were recruited, then the total court caseload would decrease.

5.    In terms of work entering the system, with an increase in police officer numbers, more people were being charged by Kent Police. This had resulted in more cases progressing to the Crown Prosecution Service and to the courts. In addition, there had recently been a number of cases involving protesters and small boat crossings, which added to the workload. In short, there was a triple challenge involving the work entering the system, courts’ capacity and staffing levels.

6.    The Commissioner said that he was going to write to the new Government to reiterate those challenges, and work in partnership with the Government in order to address some of them - as the impact on victims, witnesses, defendants and staff was significant.

7.    In reply to a question about the possibility of using other venues to reduce the backlog, the Commissioner said that some work was already transferred elsewhere, for example the small boats’ cases were heard in Sussex. The main challenge was the shortage of staff; judges’ careers had to be made more attractive in order to encourage more people to apply. Many Kent-based staff opted to work in London to receive the London Allowance. The PCC had recommended that a Southeast Allowance be paid in order to break the cycle of failed recruitment campaigns and staff shortages. However, with no funding available, this recommendation did not materialise.

8.    A concern was raised about the increasing trend in the centralisation of courts. The Commissioner recognised that centralisation had the effect of disempowering teams locally. He added that, in order to increase the number of court cases heard, he believed that the use of the virtual video element was an effective solution. The South-East video enabled justice programme, which the Government funded and was coordinated by Kent and Sussex Police, showed positive outcomes and saved valuable police officers’ time. However, the funding for that programme ended and the judiciary opposed its use.

9.    In reply to a question about how Kent’s backlog compared statistically with similar counties, Mr Harper said that this was a regional issue involving all the counties bordering London. He added that all the relevant agencies, including the judiciary, the courts, the police and the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 121.

1.    The Commissioner introduced the report and explained that shoplifting was an important issue and was one of the priorities in his Police and Crime Plan. Shoplifting had also become more prominent in the national agenda because it caused significant challenges.

2.    The Commissioner said that he had met regularly with representatives of the Association of Convenience Stores, who estimated that there were 5.6 million incidents of shoplifting in the whole country every year. He stated that, in Kent, shoplifting accounted for more than the total amount of victim-based crime in the county. Also, the extent of this problem in Kent (15,137 recorded crimes between April 2023 and March 2024) could be even greater as not all shoplifting crimes were reported.

3.    Recent developments included the launch, in October 2023, of the Retail Crime Action Plan. The Plan provided greater assurance around attendance at the scene, investigation, dealing with prolific offenders and patrolling.  In addition, with the ‘Pegasus’ initiative, which was launched in Sussex, retailers were funding analytical and operational work at national level to provide intelligence packages for policing on cross-border organised crime.

4.    A key issue which was reported by local businesses to the Commissioner was around the online reporting of crime. While the online reporting system had improved, the mechanism was still too time consuming, as there was no option to set an account and pre-populate details; these had to be entered for every reported incident.

5.    When discussing the Retail Crime Action Plan, the Commissioner reported that the Kent Police’s Digital Asset Management System now enabled efficient, quick time uploading of CCTV from stores. If the image was suitable, this was uploaded to a localised internal system called “Caught on Camera” where officers could quickly identify suspects. In May 2024, 532 images sent to ‘Caught on Camera’ were for retail crime and had sufficient facial features to enable a retrospective facial recognition search. 186 (35%) of them enabled officers to identify a suspect.

6.    With regard to hotspot patrolling, positive results had been shown in West Kent. Increased patrols in retail areas which were experiencing particular problems had resulted in a reduction by half in the number of reports of shoplifting from those locations.

7.    In answer to a question about the location of these hotspot areas, the Commissioner said that these comprised mainly large retail areas, such as supermarkets and shopping centres. However, he cautioned that the identification of these hotspots was very much dependent on whether shoplifting crimes were reported.

8.    In reply to a question about whether a permit was required in order to supplement Kent Police in tackling retail crime, the Commissioner clarified that investigations could only be conducted by warrant card-holding police officers. However, Kent Police did work in partnership with street marshals and security guards, and some of them were given dedicated training from the Force.

RESOLVED: To note the report.

1.    The Commissioner praised the PCC’s Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer’s professionalism, hard work and diligence. The Chief Executive, who had over 40 years of policing experience, was going to be a real loss to the Commissioner’s team. The Commissioner expressed gratitude to him for everything he had done for his team and the county.

2.    The Chairman also expressed his gratitude to the PCC’s Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer, and advised that there would be a Confirmation Hearing for the recruitment of the new PCC’s Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer in due course.

RESOLVED: To note the decision and that a Confirmation Hearing would take place later in the year.

Question 1

On your re-election (for which, congratulations) you promised that later this year you will introduce an immediate justice programme, designed to bring those responsible to justice more quickly. Could you tell us please how those committing antisocial behaviour will be made to provide payback to our neighbourhoods and what form that payback will take? 

(Cllr Mike Blakemore, Folkestone and Hythe District Council)

1.    The Commissioner stated that his Office (the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner) had been in contact with a number of organisations to scope their ability to deliver an immediate justice programme. The expectation was that referrals would be made within 48 hours. The form that payback would take had to be properly monitored from a safeguarding perspective. The Commissioner anticipated that the programme could include graffiti removal and litter-picking. There would also be an element of reform.

Question 2

Many areas in Kent face a woeful police presence and one such area is the Isle of Sheppey within the Borough of Swale. Sheppey faces unique issues with its poor road’s infrastructure particularly the A249 and the New Sheppey bridge which frequently faces closure. Sheppey residents are concerned about the rise in crime, and they have real concerns about poor police response times. This is a common theme across Kent in many communities but owing to the unique nature of Sheppey it is far worse.

Sheppey doesn’t have an operational police station and often police response must be dispatched from crews from the mainland such as from Sittingbourne, Medway or further afield. The lack of local police available on the Island at times is very concerning, how is the Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) holding to account the Chief Constable to ensure the residents receive adequate local policing on Sheppey?

(Cllr Richard Palmer, Swale Borough Council)

1.    The Commissioner explained that he had regular conversations with Kent Police about the Isle of Sheppey because he recognised its unique geography and the challenges that its residents faced. The Island would be allocated an additional Neighbourhood Officer (from 4 to 5) as part of the Neighbourhood Policing Model. He advised the Island had an operational police station which Local Policing Team officers worked from, and support was also provided by the Rural Policing Team and the Roads Policing Team. He said Kent Police would always respond to emergencies, like anywhere else in the county. He added Sheerness was receiving hotspot patrols to target serious violence and anti-social behaviour, and the Island would also receive additional roads policing as part of an operation to tackle violent criminals. He reminded Members and the public to sign up to My Community Voice in order to receive regular updates from their local Beat Officer..

Question 3

The Police and Crime Commissioner is known to support that the police should have all the tools at their disposal to help combat crime, such as when tasers were supported, and this is welcomed. In light of this support for said tools and in line  ...  view the full minutes text for item 124.

RESOLVED:  toconsider and approve the Kent and Medway Police and Crime Panel 2023/24 Annual Report

RESOLVED to note the report.

RESOLVED: that the minutes of the Performance and Delivery Board meetings held on 13 September 2023, 29 November 2023 and 28 February 2024 be noted.