Nick Love seeks meeting to discuss crime concerns and IT failures

The Police Commissioner Julia Mulligan has announced a 2% increase in the element of Council Tax which funds Policing in North Yorkshire and York.

The announcement comes only a few days after it was revealed that the levels of, some types of, crime were continuing to increase in the City.

Anyone looking to find a working link to the Commissioners web site (from the police site) will be disappointed  Police and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire Anyone trying to follow a link to the  Safer York partnership http://www.saferyork.org.uk/ will find similar frustrations. Even worse, a link to the equivalent site in Selby  directs residents to a mortgage company.

And that is part of the emerging problem with local policing. Communications with the public are haphazard in some areas.

Until 3 years ago we all knew how our allocated local “bobby” was”. There were dedicated Police officers and PCSOs for each ward.

There was a local web site which, as well as containing details of the local officers, also set out surgery dates and contact channels as well as crime prevention information.

This has largely disappeared.

While the web site still includes a – user friendly – map showing the distribution of crime reports it currently fails most other tests.

Some wards seem to have suffered particularly badly from the decision to centralise some police officers into an “anti social behaviour” hub located in the York Councils’ West Offices. There has been no report on the effectiveness of this unit although the York council is budgeting to throw a further £300,000 into it next year.

In fairness there has been some progress on some aspects of “social media”.

The twitter feeds for various parts of the force are appreciated by many residents. The daily news updates are also a positive approach

But little performance information is routinely published across the whole county – and what is available is broad brush. It is particularly difficult to find information on detection rates – one of the key tests for any police force.

Even the supposed independent police and crime panel receives little useful information and has a profile which can most kindly be described as subterranean

As a minimum these changes need to be made:

1. Safer neighbourhood web sites need to be updated and refined
2. Local communities should know who their dedicated police officers and PCSOs are
3. They should have an idea about the level of patrolling frequency that they can expect to see.
4. They should have access to surgeries where they can talk to (at least) a PCSO. (Only one surgery for the whole of February is currently advertised on the local York Police web site)
5. The positive engagement policy should be reintroduced with the police attending events at community centres, libraries etc possibly when another event is taking place. (unfortunately, with the demise of the Ward committee, one formal link with local communities was lost)
6. Residents should be clear how to make contact. If police desks like the one at Acomb are manned what the opening hours are and who will be manning the desks (currently volunteers)?
7. Local Councillors, neighbourhood watch and the media should be routinely told about local crime trends and prevention advice. All should agree to pass on information to local residents. Use could be made of notice boards and Council newsletters.
8. Crime stats should be routinely published at least for safer neighbourhood areas. These should include detection rates.
9. The Police Commissioner should ensure that all meeting agendas and supporting papers are readily available – including links to them from local Council web sites. She should trial webcasting and public access sessions.
10. There should be a review of the location of senior officers. Given crime trends, there may be a case for the DCC to be headquartered in York.

Those at the top of the local Police force need to get a grip on these issues quickly.

Nick Love the LibDem MP candidate for York Central says,

“I will be seeking a meeting with the Police to see how we can best address areas where crime has increased in York and to explore the possibility of a more senior officer being permanently based in the City such as the Deputy Chief Constable.”