Old Colwyn (East) Residents’ Association
Minute of a Talk by Inspector Essi Ahari Wednesday 11th February 2009
The Chair welcomed East Conwy’s Inspector Essi Ahari to the meeting.
Inspector Ahari opened by saying that it was a pleasure to attend, he had been in post since October 2008 and he had endeavoured to attend as many community meetings as possible during that time.
He said he had held a couple of private meetings with the secretary and it had been very informative. He said that he enjoys interaction, dialogue and engagement with the public.
In referring to the previous presentation which had spoken of partnerships, he added that the
Residents Association is a partner too and in any future partnership meetings, he will invite representatives as he had heard things here that he was not aware of.
Inspector Ahari also invited the members to visit the police website at http://www.north-
Inspector Ahari was very critical of the offender(s) responsible for the fires and promised that with the profiling that had been done of the crimes it was a police intention to catch the offender ASAP before serious damage is caused. Any information about peoples’ suspicions should be phoned or emailed to the police, giving times and descriptions and any other relevant information.
He went on to say that he considers himself a public servant and any issue that anyone wants to raise with him; he will do his utmost to address it. He considers himself part of the residents group and will try to come to future meetings.
Returning to the issue of fires, he said that Colwyn is the highest cluster site for arson in North Wales. It is one or two people that are causing the problem and he would welcome any suspicions if necessary in confidence. It will be actioned.
Inspector Ahari then said if residents want anything from him, they could speak now or phone or email, his office door is always open. He reads the minutes of the meeting and has interest in the association and has contact with the secretary and he looks forward to working closer and making progress.
Questions
Councillor Cheryl Carlisle I would like to ask, we are supposed to have as I understand it a CBM for each Council Ward…
Inspector Ahari The Chief Constable 3 or 4 years ago promised that every Ward in North Wales would have a CBM, that has not happened, it is a question that you would have to ask him. He would probably argue that there is not enough money. In terms of my district here we are not too bad, we average between a CBM and PCSO about one per WARD, so it is not too bad.
Secretary we have an issue here that Martyn has been off sick, how is he now?
Inspector Ahari he is off for about four weeks.
Secretary Obviously we have missed him, we see Mike occasionally, in the evenings but we do suffer from a lack of foot patrol and although we have a CBM, he is covering almost two and a half Council Wards as Cheryl said, and basically it is spreading the jam too thin, you can’t taste it and it is a real problem, from the public perception.
Inspector Ahari There used to be a police station in Old Colwyn, I understand, there are 1670 police officers now against 1200 officers ten years ago, so we have nearly five hundred more since you worked here.
Secretary We just don’t see them.
Inspector Ahari We have more officers, more technology, and more equipment so you should see us more. I encourage my officers to go out and walk the streets.
Richard Poynton is it purely because of paperwork that we don’t see them?
Inspector Ahari No, the policing that our generations were used to were mainly concerned with crime, now we have terrorism, public protection, paedophiles, child abuse, domestic abuse, it is so vast, from minor antisocial behaviour all the way to terrorism, the demand is massive, we can’t be there every time and everywhere. Our budget is fairly small at £150million for policing North Wales, it does not go far. The vast majority of the money goes on manpower costs, the Chief is trying to get more money but it is difficult, policing is an expensive business, it’s very complex.
If we arrest someone for stealing a pack of biscuits you have to take them from here to St Asaph, thirty miles round trip, the officer would be sitting there doing paper work, a solicitor comes, interview, documentation, charging, four or five hours, if Mike arrests somebody, he is out of commission for 4 or 5 hours.
Richard Poynton So doesn’t that suggest that taking the headquarters to St Asaph was the wrong thing to do?
Inspector Ahari It was assessed and decided that it would be better to have one centre in St Asaph where the custody is. Don’t forget that if you had another custody in Colwyn Bay for example or Llandudno, you would have had four custody sergeants for every one, whereas in St Asaph we only have relatively few who run the show there, it has the balance right. In terms of travel and time you are right, that is the way it is. We have other powers though, we can issue fixed penalty tickets, they don’t have to be arrested and taken to St Asaph, officers can give them an £80 ticket or a caution in the street. This is 21st century policing.
Secretary there is one thing that I would like to mention, on 22nd of January, the Chair and I and a few other people here, came to a “Crime, reality versus perception” consultation meeting of the Police Authority here in this room. We had previously last month prepared a letter, which it was our intention to contribute to the meeting and we were treated rather rudely really. We were not allowed to read our letter to the meeting; our Chair requested that prior to the start of the meeting and was refused.
This is not a matter for you personally, I sent the letter to the Chair and the Chief Executive of the Police authority separately and we have had a reply from the Chair saying “Thank you for your letter, the contents of which I have noted”. Apparently it has been written off; we will have to see what the minutes of that meeting say in due course.
I was accused of trying to take over the meeting, which appalls me because we came to that meeting to contribute. At the end of the meeting the Chair took the letter and said that he would read it and respond.
Just for you to know that we have a view, which you know now, having read the letter, about the perception of crime and the so called fear of crime which we feel is not a good phrase. We feel that it would be better called public concern about criminal behaviour which is a much wider concept.
If there is a way of feeding our feelings back to the Police Authority, we ask you to do that. We are not in the habit of hijacking meetings.
Inspector Ahari you are right to raise the matter with me, it was your forum which was well attended, and we need to listen to what you have to say. I will feed the matter back to the Police Authority.
Cliff Prout MBE I am furious, I think it was absolutely scandalous the lack of action resulting from the presentation of that letter.
Inspector Ahari What I would say is that they are now collating the information, so it will be some time before they come forward with a result. I will pass on your feelings.
This is a big debate as you know; crime in this district is five percent less than it was at this time last year. You may feel it is far worse but that is the case. We are very proud of our recording procedures; we get about 4000 crimes a year.
Secretary Then there is a debate about the fact that a lot of crime is not reported, there is also other criminal behaviour and we see it and we are affected by it and that is what I mean about the fear of crime debate. We are affected by all criminal behaviour.
Councillor Cossey If Martyn is going to be off for a long period of time, is there any chance of anybody else stepping into his role?
Inspector Ahari Unfortunately not because it would mean taking a PCSO from a different area.
Councillor Cossey Could the Special Constables be asked to concentrate on the area?
Inspector Ahari Yes, I am working very closely with them and will be happy for that to happen.
Councillor Cossey we miss Martyn, if Mike arrests someone, he is off, whereas when Martyn is on duty, he is here walking around and is well visible.
Inspector Ahari I will get the Special Constables to walk the streets, they are very keen to come out as well; we have ten in this district.
Secretary Would you convey the best wishes of our meeting to Martyn please because we haven’t been able to see him and cannot be contacted by email.
Inspector Ahari agreed to do so and urged the members to contact him by any means as what people have to say is important to him.
Cliff Prout MBE Can I just say that I am a victim and have a fear of crime, the action taken by the police was exceptionally good. As a result of what happened, I have had to have security around the house, lighting, cameras, alarm systems and this is not good.
Inspector Ahari spoke of the humbling effect of listening to people talk of their experiences and promised to do his best. It is however the case that we cannot have a police officer in every street.
The Chair said that it was reassuring to see Inspector Ahari at our meeting and thanked him for attending and introducing himself. There was a round of applause.
