Agenda item

To receive a report of the Commissioner of Police.

The Committee received a report of the Commissioner of Police which updated Members on the City First Change Programme.

The Commissioner noted that the City First Programme had resulted in an overall reduction in staff headcount, notwithstanding increases in the Economic Crime work stream and the expected force establishment would now be 730 officers.

The Chairman noted that the City Futures programme had been discussed at the Member’s Police Committee workshop and the Commissioner would present it to Members at Committee in December.

A Member remarked that the current figures did not measure the diversity in the workforce and would these would be included the next report to Committee.

A Member remarked that the current figures did not measure the diversity in the workforce and would be included in a future report to Committee.

The Deputy Chairman noted that the detection rates were being examined as part of considerations for targets for the Policing Plan 2014-15. Members agreed that caution was required in establishing additional targets as there was the risk of distorting behaviour and creating perverse incentives. The Commissioner added that the Home Secretary held the view that having large numbers of targets was not necessarily better and that established rates of crime and detection should be clear. While the focus remained on crime reduction, the best way to measure this was a dashboard indicator system.

A Member noted that detection rates and crime rates were both down, which could hypothetically be due to underreporting. It was thus important that the Force communicate crime reporting and current figures and engage with communities.