The North Wales Police Authority held a series of meetings in January 2009 with the public, asking for the views of the public, to help them understand the high fear of crime in North Wales when viewed alongside statistics of crime and detections. Our residents association held discussions and wrote this letter to express their thoughts on the concept of a public concern about criminal behaviour. The Chair of the Police Authority public meeting would not allow the letter to be read in the meeting, confining questions to the content of the presentation only. We believe that the letter outlines a valid point of view. The Chair later accepted the letter and agreed to read it and respond, for which undertaking we are grateful.
Old Colwyn East Residents' Association
Old Colwyn
CONWY
LL29 9RW
22nd January 2009
Cllr Ian Roberts
Chair to the North Wales Police Authority
62 Church View,
Shepherd's Lane
Chirk
Wrexham
LL14 5PF
Dear Councillor Roberts
The subject presently being discussed at a number of Police Authority meetings with
the public is Crime -
We wish as a residents' association to contribute to the debate and have our contribution taken seriously. As a committee we have consulted our members and in our collective view, the important focus is on the words Reality and Perception; whose reality and whose perception?
The Police Authority meetings are being held to spread the word that reported crime is going down, sanctioned detections are up, therefore the reality is that the chances of being a victim of crime is very low; this is the Police perception.
The police nationally have been congratulated by the Home Secretary recently on delivering the "Policing Pledge". The Police must therefore have an accord with the public that Neighbourhood policing is working well. Hence the present process of convincing the public that their perception in having a "fear of crime" is misplaced and wrong.
It is often commented on that a lot of crime goes unreported for various reasons. Alongside robbery, burglary, damage and violence, part of the reality from the public perception is that "using threatening abusive and insulting words or behaviour likely to cause harassment alarm and distress" is a crime and is one which people are affected by daily. Because they are affected, they are victims of crime and feel victimised as a result.
This is where much of the so called "fear of crime" resides. Detections may be improving for certain crimes but criminal behaviour is increasing, and it is only the statistics that are being managed. In our view, the basis of this argument is about the Home Office through the Police still trying to show that they are "tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime".
Some individuals and some groups of people; a minority it is said, cause an increasing number of problems in all areas of East Conwy and North Wales and have been doing so for the last several years, here lies a problem which needs to be addressed. The police say "if you the public see it, tell us about it otherwise we do not know".
A large number of refuse bins have been destroyed by fire over the last year in Old Colwyn and there appears to be no particular strategy to combat the menace, we know that it is taking place, some is reported to police, some to the fire brigade and some to the council and it is a serious threat to the locality and generally to property. The mess that is caused lasts for a very long time as the plastic bins are melted as a result. It scars the neighbourhood and causes concern about criminal behaviour.
The problems of criminal behaviour exist and the situation is deteriorating. The Police Authority answer is a simple "We have Neighbourhood Policing Teams in all areas of North Wales"
It was a Home Office directive that there must be a Neighbourhood Policing Team in each area. In order to comply with that directive, the area covered by our Old Colwyn CBM was made larger, to cover more than two council wards, even though it was already too large for the officer to be fully effective. Also a problem is that the Neighbourhood officers are a shared resource with other areas when other CBMs and PCSOs are off duty. These comments are in no way to be seen as a comment on the professionalism of the officers concerned who are held in high regard. It is a comment on numbers of officers and size of areas which is a policy matter and very much a matter for the Police Authority and of course the Government who control the funding stream to a large degree.
The police and government call much of the "harassment alarm and distress" type of incident antisocial behaviour and do not classify such matters as crime. Much is written off in effect as juvenile behaviour, among other classifications. If it is seen by an officer, it is often dealt with by means of fixed penalty and so rarely enters the statistical chain as "crime" unless a member of the public makes a statement of evidence and an arrest ensues.
The only crime that Police and Government wish to have considered in the "fear of
crime debate" is violence, damage and acquisitive crime. Fear of crime is a phrase,
again invented for political expediency by the Government and maintained by the Police
and Police Authority, as a means of directing public attention to good news in a
controllable arena. Statistics can be controlled. There is a report out today about
the fact that North Wales Police may be one of the eighteen forces under-
Harassment, alarm and distress is not treated by the police as crime. Harassment alarm and distress could be defined as a concern of person or property being subjected to damage or violence, as a result of a person or group of persons acting in a manner which is unreasonable and out of control. It is a significant cause of stress and is not victimless.
Nationally, it is reported that in 57% of crimes, victims are not visited; persons are dealt with on the phone and given a crime number or other advice. This may lead to persons not informing the police about crimes because it is anticipated that the police will not take action.
There is public concern about the reported police policy of not taking action in respect of a large number of unsafe foreign trucks on the A55 at Holyhead, in case it affects the business of the port. The public perception of that policy is "The drivers can have unsafe vehicles as long as they do not speed". Speeding is regarded by the police as a crime, according to the Chief Constable.
The phrase fear of crime therefore does not mean the same to the public as it does to the police and government. How then if officials and public speak a different language, can there ever be an accord over the so called fear of crime.
The boundaries of the debate are too narrow and are controlled by the police and government. If members of the public have a natural concern about criminal behaviour, it is for the public to say from where the concern emanates.
If for instance shops in the village are having their windows smashed, it is natural for people to be concerned when loutish behaviour is seen in the vicinity of shops. It is also for the public to say whether the concern is rational or irrational, not a police officer or member of the police authority.
The police are often not in possession of the facts that the public are aware of. That is the reason why there must be more real liaison between the Police and the public. You do not start that process however by telling the public that their concern about criminal behaviour is irrational. That attitude is condescending and patronising. Neither do you enter into dialogue with the public by holding a survey with questions designed to elicit ideal desired answers, as with the Swift 1500 survey.
If a person was alarmed by violent behaviour yesterday and did not tell the police, the police would not know. The person would be a victim of the criminal behaviour. If asked, the person would say that he or she had concern about criminal behaviour.
That would be "confusing" for the Police Authority because the situation which caused the anxiety was not recorded. The concern would not be irrational, it would be normal.
It is becoming common these days to shrug such happenings off and get on with life, who really wants to know? This does not change feelings though. The concern about criminal behaviour is real, not imaginary or irrational.
It is time for the government and the police to acknowledge that and get on with managing perpetrators not statistics.
This letter is positive; we value our police force and its officers. We value the strides made in technology and the ability of the police force to catch lawbreakers as a result. We value the control of speeding and unsafe drivers as it makes our roads safer. Surely it is not beyond the bounds of possibility to stop the criminal behaviour on our streets which leads to a concern about criminal behaviour.
We ask you to reconsider your perception of the spread of officers over the force area. If the Government model of Neighbourhood Policing is not working as it should, because of officer numbers and size of areas, then perhaps we need more officers on response, a more general policing ethos.
We ask you please in your Police Authority deliberations over this set of public consultations, to consider carefully the use of a more realistic phrase to convey public concern about criminal behaviour instead of the more jingoistic phrase, fear of crime commonly used by Police and Government.
When you think about it, public concern about criminal behaviour makes more sense.
Yours sincerely
Richard Poynton
Chair of Old Colwyn East Residents Association
Facts for consideration in the debate
· Total recorded crime has dropped by 3 per cent since 1998-
· Figures on the number of serious knife crimes recorded in England and Wales
were published for the first time in July 2008. There were 22,151 serious offences
involving knives recorded in England and Wales in 2007-
· Just 14 per cent of all police officers' time is spent on patrol compared with 20 percent of their time on paperwork.
· The Prime Minister's Strategy Unit found that it now takes 111/z hours to process an arrest.
· A police force submission to Sir Ronnie Flanagan's Review of Policing described how officers produced over 79,000 stop and account forms in 2006, with the administration and recording processes estimated at 25 minutes per form.
· According to the British Crime Survey, almost a million people were the victims
of alcohol related attacks in 2007-
· In the year to November 2006 -
· The number of A & E admissions where diagnosis was alcohol-
· The Government has said that since 2004, just 32 people under 18 have been prosecuted at magistrates' courts for buying or attempting to buy alcohol illegally.
· In 2006, the last year for which figures are available, just eight under 18s were prosecuted.
· The Home Office has said that in 2006, only 7 offenders were given the maximum fine of £1,000 for selling alcohol to children in premises such as pubs or clubs.
The picture therefore is one of increasing bad behaviour and violence; that is not imaginary and may give rise to a public concern about criminal behaviour
Police Authority Invitation to the meetings
The detection rate is up from 21 % in 2002/03 to 40% in 2007/08, and North Wales has the second highest sanctioned detection rate in England and Wales. Sanctioned detections are those in which the offenders are confirmed but the cases may not have reached court.
"However, national figures demonstrate that fear of crime and anti-
"Why should that be so when there's a less than 3% chance of anyone becoming a victim of crime?" In November the Home Office announced a 2.5% drop in personal crime in North Wales in 2007108, an improvement of more than 4% in the risk of household crime and a drop of nearly 4% in violent crime. Offences brought to justice were up from 35% to almost 40%.
Mrs. Roberts said: "We hope the public will grasp the opportunity to attend the meetings and express their views.
"Senior officers of the Police Authority will provide an overview of the situation across the region and local inspectors will explain in more detail the local perspective."
