Old Colwyn East Residents' Association
CONWY
LL29 9RW
14th May 2009
Kelvin Dent
Chief Executive to the North Wales Police Authority
Dear Mr Dent,
The forthcoming set of Police Authority Consultation Forums is advertised as follows;
“This is an opportunity to meet with Members of the Police Authority, in an informal setting, to have your say on the Strategy for policing North Wales.
Giving people with whom we come into contact a higher quality of service is a priority for North Wales Police and North Wales Police Authority in 2009/10. We are eager to hear your views on what the Force and the Authority should be doing in order to improve the quality of service provided”.
Having represented our residents’ views in the last set of forums on the fear of crime issue and read the police authority minutes of that meeting, it was mentioned that we had written a letter but it is obvious that the contents were not taken seriously. The consensus of the meetings was misrepresented by Mrs Rees Roberts recently, commenting in the press that television programs such as “The Bill” fuel the fear of crime; that type of statement is patronising. The whole process of consultation via PACF was rubbished by Chief Constable Brunstrom in the press. The public still do not know what, if anything the police authority learned about the fear of crime issue.
So we now pass on to the 2009 / 2010 priority issue of a higher Quality of Service.
One of the issues which impacts on the quality of service is the ability of members of the public to feed into the consultation process. If the Police authority cannot hear the views of the public, how can it know what the public thinks and wants?
As a Police Authority you have the Swift 1500 survey which you value highly. When it comes down to the PACFs they are now scorned by the Chief Constable as unrepresentative of the views of the wider public. It seems highly unlikely that he would take on board any views brought forward from the police authority, even if it agreed with a stated public view. If that is the case, one could be forgiven for asking “what is the value of members of the public attending in their own time and at their own expense to take part?”
The public has a right to question the results of the Swift 1500 survey, after all the survey is “designed” and the design process is bound to incorporate certain parameters required by the Police and Police Authority to support their future intentions and requirements.
For those members of the public not forming part of the Swift survey, the only way that they can attempt to feed their ideas into the system is via the PACFs. If the Police Authority is seen not to represent their views then the public who attend are entitled to feel let down and that there is no way that they can make their views known in a manner which has relevance to the setting of strategic or any other plans. There is an alternative of course that the Swift 1500 survey is made public via your website so that any person could respond alongside the chosen group; this would strengthen the findings of the survey. If there is nothing to hide, there is nothing to fear.
There are four representations which we wish to put forward for discussion in the next session as part of the agenda as ways in which a better quality of service can be seen, if you will allow that to happen.
1. There are instances on record that indicate that when people ring the police when they are in jeopardy, for instance when surrounded by aggressive persons, somehow it is seen as acceptable for the Force Control Centre to be able to say “We have no officer to send at the moment”. From a public perspective that is 100% not acceptable. When there is no response to an emergency how can there be quality of service?
2. That some system be developed to allow the public to feed consultation ideas into the strategic planning of North Wales Police before plans are adopted. For instance we have a statement from you “Giving people with whom we come into contact a higher quality of service is a priority for North Wales Police and North Wales Police Authority in 2009/10”; the public is now being asked for ideas on how to implement that statement. It would have been better if there had been some way to feed into the decision to adopt that as a priority. The authority states that it wants to enable local people to have a greater level of involvement in the process of making local policing decisions and identifying solutions.
3. That a realistic minimum staffing level be agreed for each area so that Quality of Service is assured. It is apparent that PCSOs or CBMs are often not available at known peak times for a given area. This throws the burden onto Response Officers or CBMs, PCSOs from other areas who are otherwise busy. We are aware of the concept of “Quest”.
When there are known problems at certain times of the day, there should be a police capability to deal with problems that arise.
Old Colwyn has benefited in the last couple of weeks from a review of staffing and we are grateful to the local police management for an increase of a PCSO to assist our CBM.
4. That the Police Authority asks the public to contribute to consultation without precondition and records the public point of view as is; that is not to assume that the public perspective is right but if is there is valid comment it should be quoted not paraphrased or ignored. In that way the public will not be in a position to say that their views are not taken into account. Being able to put a point of view is an important part of Quality of Service.
Yours sincerely
David Curtis
Secretary
