Warwickshire PCC monthly update: September 2016

Monthly update from Warwickshire's Police and Crime Commissioner

View this email in your browser

The latest news from the Warwickshire Police and Crime Commissioner

Monthly update: September 2016

I want to start this month's newsletter with a big thank you to everyone who took part in my consultation on the Police and Crime Plan. Making sure that your views on policing and community safety are fully taken into account is hugely important to me, as is ensuring the plan meets the needs of all communities - so to have more than 1,000 responses from right across the county is very pleasing.

The thrust of the responses show broad support for all of the major elements the Police and Crime Plan will cover, but I also want to make sure it takes into account the more detailed additional comments you have given, including those made via social media. It will take a little time to collate all of the feedback but I will publish a full report of the findings on my website in due course.

This week has also seen the results published of a major survey by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), which looked at public attitudes towards the police. It's an interesting piece of research by Ipsos MORI which was actually conducted last summer but is nonetheless still relevant today. Some of the questions it asked covered similar ground to my own consultation and it is encouraging that HMIC found that 76 percent of people are satisfied with policing - but clearly that still leaves room for improvement.

The HMIC survey covered quite a wide range of issues with more than 70 pages of detailed analysis, so I will be looking at this carefully to understand the full implications over the coming weeks. In the meantime, work continues on putting together the Police and Crime Plan, which will be ready for release in draft form in the Autumn.

Philip Seccombe
Warwickshire Police and Crime Commissioner

Deputy PCC

You may recall that back in July I began a recruitment process to find a Deputy to work alongside myself and help deliver the Police and Crime Plan. I was pleased to receive a healthy number of applicants and after shortlisting, a formal interview process took place last month.

Unfortunately, none of the candidates were ultimately suitable to take on the role at this time and I have therefore been unable to make an appointment. While this is clearly disappointing, I have been clear from the outset that I wanted to make the appointment on merit and would not do so if I did not feel I had found the right person for the role.

I will take some time to consider my options and in the meantime will continue to operate without a Deputy.

Rider skills course helps keep bikers safe

The riders and instructors taking part in the workshop were joined by the Warwickshire Police and Crime Commissioner at the British Motor Museum.

One of the clear areas that is already evident from my initial look at the consultation survey results is the importance that you place on road safety in the county, particularly around tackling poor or dangerous driving. While there has been a major push over the last 30 years to reduce the numbers of people killed or seriously injured on our roads, the numbers are still higher than anyone would want. In Warwickshire last year there were more than 2,000 injuries on our roads, with 35 people killed as a result of collisions. Another 283 people suffered life-changing injuries.

Clearly police enforcement activity is part of the solution - tackling those whose driving is reckless or dangerous is hugely important - but so too is education, since there are many occasions where people don't realise the dangers they place themselves in or don't have the right skills or levels of awareness to avoid trouble. There are a range of partners involved in delivering road safety awareness across the county and I provide funding to a number of initiatives designed to help some of the most vulnerable road users.

In August I had to opportunity to see one such scheme in action when I visited the British Motor Museum at Gaydon to see a safer riding workshop take place. There is little doubt that motorcyclists are vulnerable road users - in some instances because of their own actions and in others due to the actions of others. Last year there were 171 motorcycling casualties in Warwickshire and that's a number we need to work hard to reduce.

Through my Grants Scheme I have awarded the Musuem £6,000 to help subsidise the cost of the workshops for bikers. Run by ex-police instructors and advanced police riders as well as senior instructors from both RoSPA and the IAM, the workshop covers road observation, hazard perception, anticipation and planning, overtaking and cornering technique and includes both classroom and on-the-road assessment of riders.

The tuition is extremely professional but delivered by people who are themselves riders so it comes across really well – a scheme for bikers by bikers. Particularly eye-opening was the presence of a large lorry parked outside the venue, which gave the riders the opportunity to see for themselves how little drivers of such vehicles can see of motorcyclists from the cab when pulling up at junctions.

The museum is keen to look at running further courses in future, so if you are a keen biker, do make enquiries with them and express your interest.

You can find our more at www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk.

Helping a good cause

This weekend a team from my office will be taking part in the Wolf Run to raise money for Parkinson's UK. The event is a unique combination of three kinds of off-road running: mud runs, trail runs and obstacle runs and takes place near Offchurch over the weekend, with the 'Warwickshire Wolves' taking their start on Sunday morning.

They're no strangers to a bit of mud - last year the team raised more than £800 for Cancer Research when they took part in the same event (pictured above).

If you want to sponsor them, you can do so online at: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/warksopcc and all donations will be gratefully received - they are already over the £600 mark. I'll have an update and photos on their progress next month!

The month ahead

Here are some of the key events in my diary for the month ahead:

September 6: Weekly meeting with the Chief Constable
September 6: Meeting with county Neighbourhood Watch chairs
September 7: Attending Shakespeare's New Place celebration, Stratford
September 8: Meeting with the Chief Crown Prosecutor for the West Midlands Region
September 9: Attending Breakfast Business Forum, Leamington
September 12: Visit to the Domestic Abuse Counselling Service, Nuneaton
September 13: Weekly meeting with the Chief Constable
September 15: Meeting the chair of the Strategic IAG
September 17: Hosting the regional seminar of the Independent Custody Visitors' Association
September 19: Joint Audit Committee
September 21: Weekly meeting with the Chief Constable
September 21: Speaking at a Rugby Neighbourhood Watch event
September 23: Police and Crime Panel meeting, Atherstone
September 25: Attending National Police Memorial Day service, St Paul's Cathedral, London
September 26: Meeting with Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary
September 27: Weekly meeting with the Chief Constable
September 28: Alliance Governance Group
September 30: Visit to Firearms and Explosives Licensing Unit.

The next newsletter will be issued on Friday, October 7.

Keep up to date with the latest news from the Warwickshire PCC

Facebook

Twitter

Website