Agenda item

Report of the Commissioner of Police.

The Board considered a report of the Commissioner of the City of London Police summarising the quantitative and qualitative performance of the Force as the National Lead Force for Fraud for the fourth quarter of 2015/16 and for 2015/16 overall.

The Commander was heard in support of the report and proceeded to take Members through the various elements of the paper.  Detailed discussion ensued during which a number of comments were made. This included the following:-

Whilst the customer satisfaction figures had reduced since last year, they were dependent on people being willing to complete a survey after each case. People were becoming more survey weary and as a consequence the level of participation had fallen making it more difficult to capture relevant information.

Reference was made to the reduction of crime reports and the Board noted that this had occurred as a result of a gap in the service caused by BSS going into administration. It was of the view that the paragraph would have benefitted from the inclusion of a footnote, particularly as monitoring reports such this were also perused by HMIC.

The Chairman of the Police Committee referred to the use of social media and it becoming a more effective way of disseminating information and messages. He felt that the use of social media was now so main stream more effort should be made with regard to its use. In addition, the merits and benefits it could make nationally should be communicated to the HMIC and the Home Office in due course. Members supported his sentiments and noted that Action Fraud attracted nearly 25,000 followers on twitter whereas a survey attracted far less participants. It was agreed that the Police Committee should be asked to consider whether more resources and emphasis should be placed on the use of social media.

The Chairman commended the creation of the Economic Crime Academy and highlighted the significant increase in the number of delegates attending it.  He also questioned the disseminations and outcomes appendix. There were a lot of figures with no explanation of the reason for collating the information. Members supported his sentiments commenting that the data should be produced in a more meaningful way.

RESOLVED – That the content of the report be noted and that the Police Committee be requested to consider whether more resources and emphasis should be placed on the use of social media.