Thank you to the organisers of this fantastic event, especially Grace there. I know that she has done the long hours on this.
And thank you to all of you for coming this morning. It is great to see you all.
“The Success of a police force is measured not by the number of arrests but by the absence of crime.” Sir Robert Peel.
Much the same can be said of a Police and Crime Commissioner. Or a Community Safety Partnership – it is good to see so many of you here today.
We must face facts. There is much that needs to be improved about the Criminal Justice System
- Delays getting cases to court
- Prisoner early releases
- Prisoners not going to prison in the first place
None of us here can solve those problems. But we can get upstream of the problems.
If we stop crimes from happening there will be fewer criminals entering the criminal justicie system, which will relieve pressure all round.
Crime Prevention is the future, just as it was the past
You here in this room are the cutting edge of crime prevention. The elite of the fight to drive down crime.
“Success is measured not by the number of arrests but by the absence of crime.”
So what, you might reasonably ask, have I as Police and Crime Commissioner been doing about it?
Well, in my First Term I have:
- Worked with the Violence Reduction Network – and when their funding looked under threat, I underwrote them for a full year. I hope to be able to do that in the future;
- Rebuilt the People Zones - When I took over they were largely ignored. Now they are thriving examples of how local communities can lift themselves up, fight crime and improve community saftey
- Worked with Neighbourhood Watch – I have established links to NHW and have employed Sam in my office whose sole job is to liaise with the hundreds of volunteers in NHW across our city and two counties.
- Established a scheme to enable Parish Councils to fight crime. The scheme has only just started with my Deputy PCC leading the charge. But great things beckon.
- Community Safety Partnerships – Well three enough of you here today to know what they do. I’ll content myself by thanking you all for what you do.
- Business Improvement District – With support from the police and my office the BIDs are working wonders
What runs through all this work is that we are EMPOWERING COMMUNITIES TO HELP THEMSELVES!!
But we are here to look to the future. Over the next four years, I want to work with you. ALL of you to achieve so much more than we have already achieved. We aim to
- Build a coalition of the willing
- Recognise that not everyone has the right skills, we will teach them
- Recognise that not everyone has the resources, we will provide them
- Recognise that not everyone has the right attitude, we will help them see sense
- Those who work with us will get our support
The Key ingredients of success are already well known to those in this room who take crime prevention seriously
- Data and data analysis
- Determination to succeed
- Problem solving techniques
- Partnerships across our city and two counties
- Community Engagement. Above all community engagement. If communities do not support us and work with us little will be achieved.
“Success is measured not by the number of arrests but by the absence of crime.”
But behold there is a little cloud on the horizon, no larger a man's hand. And so, like Ahab of old, we must prepare our chariot, that the storm stop us not.
You know that funding is already tight. But I must tell you that funding is going to get tighter.
Whichever party wins the coming General Election, I seriously doubt that there is enough funding available to honour all the election promises being made.
Something will have to give.
We must hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
We will have to do more with less. That is why Crime Prevention is so important. It is cheaper to stop a crime than to arrest, charge, try, convict and punish an offender.
And that is what the public want. As a family if they would rather see the criminal who stole their car imprisoned, or that their car had not been stolen in the first place.
“Success is measured not by the number of arrests but by the absence of crime.”
I will be with you every step of the way.
Together we can drive down crime.
Together we will drive down crime
Thank you
