Agenda item

4.1     Temporary Chief Superintendent Diane Roskilly and PC Caroline Adams (Youth Attendance Division) provided an update on the Sussex Local Policing Model, with particular reference to young people.   This followed a request made by the Committee at its meeting in September 2015 at which Members expressed concern about the impact of proposed Sussex Police budget savings on community policing.  In particular, the Committee felt community policing had helped prevent young people from becoming involved in criminal activity and was a valuable source of intelligence for the Police.  The Committee were therefore interested to learn more about those aspects of Sussex Police’s plans for community policing which might affect young people.

4.2    The update from Temporary Chief Superintendent Di Roskilly and PC Caroline Adams  included the following comments:

·        Whilst the government had announced that additional savings of £60 million would not be required, Sussex Police still need to achieve savings totalling £35 million (which follows a total of £50 million of savings already made).

·        Given the scale of the savings and that 80% of the budget is spent on staff, no area of policing will be untouched. The additional savings need to be achieved at a time of increased demand for resources relating to cyber-crime, counter-terrorism, fire arms officers and combating child sexual exploitation.

·        To enable it to achieve its core goal of catching criminals and protecting the vulnerable at a time of significantly reduced resources, Sussex Police are developing a strategy of reducing demand.  In support of this, for example, the force have a Resolution Centre (which employs experienced staff) which, where appropriate to do so, aims to deal with issues at source, rather than always despatching officers to attend to the caller in person.   

·        Sussex Police are changing the role of its Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs).   This change means PCSOs will be upskilled so they have more ability and powers to tackle problem solving in local communities.  For example, they will have more powers around young people and licensing so they will be better placed to deal with under-age drinking.  Also PCSOs will be deployed in a more targeted manner, based on intelligence and where there is a perceived, ‘Threat, Harm and Risk’. 

·        An ‘investigations framework’ is also being introduced which will give officers more discretion as to what course of action they should take in response to an incident which they have been called on to attend.  So, for example, in the past an arrest would normally have been made where parents had called the police because of their teenage child’s aggressive behaviour at home.  This would have happened even if the parent had only wanted the police in attendance so as to calm the situation.   In future, police officers will take into account the wishes of the parent as to whether an arrest is necessary. 

·        With regard to young people, the principle of treating children as children first and not unnecessarily criminalising them will be fundamental.   Building trust and confidence with young people is vital and one of the areas this has been achieved is via schools officers.   Sussex Police are therefore currently looking at that role and how this can be taken forward into the future.

·        Missing Children.  There are a large number of ‘out of area’ children placed in Sussex. Significant work is being done therefore with partner agencies so as to ensure Sussex Police are aware of the young people in the area and that appropriate risk assessments are made.     

·        Looked After Children.   This is an area the service are focusing on.   Operation Stepping Stone has been recently launched to help raise awareness amongst officers of the specific problems children in care face. The aim being to avoid unnecessarily criminalising children in this group.

·        Cyber Crime and Young People.  This is a growth area and one where the Police and Crime Commissioner has, at a time of savings for other areas, increased resources for.  This increase in resource has resulted in the expansion of the force’s specialist investigation units where officers deal with child abuse cases and serious sexual offences. 

4.3   Temporary Chief Superintendent Di Roskilly concluded her remarks by saying Sussex Police are facing significant savings and need to re-shape its services.  However the service is confident that as it reduces demand it will be able to provide an effective service that is available to people when they need it and protect those that are most vulnerable.  Sussex Police also appreciate that all agencies are having to operate with reduced resources.  The service therefore will continue to maintain and build upon the excellent local partnerships it has with other agencies in Sussex to try and ensure no child or young person ‘falls through the gap’.

4.4.   The Committee thanked both Temporary Chief Superintendent Di Roskilly and PC Caroline Adams for their comments and discussed a number of issues, which included:

·        In response to a request for more detailed information about the extent of emerging threats, such as cybercrime, the Committee were informed that detailed statistical data was not available for the meeting.  However, evidence indicates that young people exhibit similar types of behaviour both on and offline.   This suggests therefore that recognising vulnerability is key and that targeting police resources at vulnerable young people would have the most impact.  The Committee were also informed that 25% of all calls taken by the Police relate to children and young people and that the majority of these calls relate to vulnerability, rather than to criminal activity.  

·        A concern about police officers having discretion to close down investigations and whether this decision making process was subject to effective oversight.   In response the Committee were informed that Sussex Police are trying to move away from a situation where too much supervision is provided and to trust in the professionalism of individual officers to make informed judgements about the best course of action. Officers would always have a ‘Threat, Harm and Risk’ approach informing their decision making process.  They will also always take into account whether the incident involves a vulnerable person.  The Committee were also assured that there would always be a supervisor on hand to provide support if needed.

·        A general concern that some of the key benefits of community policing are under threat by the proposed re-focusing of police resources.    These benefits include the production of intelligence and a role in helping to prevent young people from engaging in criminal activity.   In response, the Committee were informed that Sussex Police will have in a place a named prevention team who will be multi-skilled and who local people will be able to call on.   Sussex Police agree that community intelligence is extremely important and the service is therefore investigating other ways it can still maintain this communication with local people.  

·        A request was made for further statistical information to be circulated to the Committee outside of the meeting.   The information requested included data on the number of missing young people in Sussex and the scale of CSE in Sussex.