*** COMMISSIONER’S ACCOUNTABILITY UPDATE ***

(28 August 2023)

Each week, the Commissioner has a one to one with Chief Constable Trevor Rodenhurst to get an update on force activity, raise matters that have been raised with me by residents, and liaise on key areas of policing (local, regional and national). The Chief and PCC operate a ‘No surprises’ policy. With their permission, here are some of the things discussed:

• Data on compliance rate of new Redaction Tool software with Crown Prosecution Service requirements and impact this is having on charge rates.
• Recruitment of staff into Emerald and Missing Persons Team.
• Changes made to make transfer of staff between Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire collaboration more seamless.
• Vacancy rates within community police teams and other units within the force where greatest pressures are being experienced at present. 
• Impact on call handling times of officers being deployed into Force Control Room over the summer. 
• Wider knock-on impact of the above and deployment into Student Hub on other policing functions.
• Focus on retention levels. Current data shows 9.9% attrition level against nearly 11% a year ago. Last six months tracking below projection and this looks likely to remain the case. So very positive news. Bedfordshire Police retention figures are going up, while national trend is not, but joint focus on staff retention is intensifying as recruitment is expected to slow down compared to last three years where record number of officers were recruited. 
• Commitment to maintaining uplift numbers and how force plans to exceed this. Commissioner expects another record number of officers to be in place by end of 2023/24 financial year. 
• Commissioner received update on all misconduct hearings coming up. Commissioner enquired about the duration of Misconduct Hearing outcomes being published on force website and why it is not for longer. Chief confirmed the duration is as determined by National Police Chiefs’ Council.
• The Commissioner asked the Chief Constable to look into the way the force informs residents how to provide digital evidence as part of crime reporting.
• Progress update on the identified areas of improvement from most recent HMICFRS report.

Commissioner Akinbusoye held his weekly catch-up with Chief Constable Trevor Rodenhurst to get an update on force activities, performance, highlight issues and jointly address public concerns.

Among their discussions include:

• Pay award for Bedfordshire Police staff.
• Force finances, budgetary risks and demand areas for next budget cycle.
• Call response times and Force Control Room performance. Report on significant improvement following operational changes to be reflected in October figures.
• Community policing numbers and what is being done to address any vacancies.
• Deployment of officers in Student Hub and report on some of their successes.
• Improving picture on force retention rate compared to two years ago.
• Decision on sale of Greyfriars.
• Update on some crime investigations, arrests made and efforts to mitigate wider impact on communities.
• Government funding of maintaining three-year police uplift numbers and plans to deliver this.

As part of the PCC’s holding to account of the Chief Constable, Commissioner Akinbusoye also met with Chief Constable Trevor Rodenhurst. He was provided with updates on stabbing investigations, performance of force control room, Bedfordshire’s Sexual Assault and Referral Centre (SARC) inspection by Care Quality Commission, Community Policing, police misconduct hearings and overall risk planning.

Each week, the Commissioner has a one to one with Chief Constable Trevor Rodenhurst to get an update on force activity, raise matters that have been raised with me by residents, and liaise on key areas of policing (local, regional and national).

The Chief and PCC operate a ‘No surprises’ policy. Every six weeks the meeting is recorded and uploaded onto the website. This meeting has been added to the website:

https://www.bedfordshire.pcc.police.uk/meetings/pcc-and-chief-constable-accountability-meetings/

Here are some of the questions asked and discussed within this meeting:

What is Bedfordshire Police doing to encourage, support and retain young people with Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) or other neurodiverse attributes who want to become a Police Cadet? How is the force supporting staff/officers with similar attributes as well?

Provide an overall view of crime and force performance in Bedfordshire. Is crime going down? Which area of crime are we seeing falls and in which are we seeing an increase?

How is the force making best use of cutting edge technology in fighting crime and are there any success stories the Chief Constable can share? What challenges does he see moving forward with this?

I am informed of the anti-social and dangerous use of vehicles on stretches of the new A5 near Lidl in Houghton Regis/Chiltern. Same for the A6 near Wixams village. I have heard of roads being blocked off by ‘racers’. These have been reported by residents but they say that nothing is being done about this when they call Bedfordshire Police. Why are illegal car meets/racing being allowed on our roads? A Member of Parliament has also written asking for information on the force’s strategy in dealing with e-scooters. What is the Chief’s response to this?

A Councillor mentioned stated, during a public meeting, that there appears to be a disparity in crime solve rate in the three local authorities in Bedfordshire, with CBC having the lowest. Please explain if this is the case and what is being done to improve this disparity.

Please provide a breakdown of how the money from speeding fines (CTC) is spent?

I have had several car thefts or theft from motor vehicles reported by residents. When reported to Bedfordshire Police, residents tell me all they are given is a crime reference number. What is the force doing to address theft of and from motor vehicles in Bedfordshire?

What are your views on Bedfordshire Police officers wearing the Thin Blue Line badge?

Answers to these questions can be found in the recordings section of this page.

Each week, the Commissioner has a one to one with Chief Constable Trevor Rodenhurst to get an update on force activity, raise matters that have been raised with me by residents, and liaise on key areas of policing (local, regional and national). The Chief and PCC operate a ‘No surprises’ policy. With their permission, here are some of the things discussed today:

• Digital Asset Management System is now live as of 11 July 2023. This allows for a much more seamless, cloud based uploading of digital footage, pictures etc as part of crime reporting and evidence gathering to aid investigations.
• Redaction tool uptake has been immense by officers. An officer put an 800 page document through the software. The software did redaction in under one hour. It would have taken two days otherwise, adding extra delays to the crime charging process and getting justice for victims. The Chief stated that a productivity review will be carried out in due course to assess impact of this new investment.
• 18 PCs and 8 staff officers being trained in Force Control Room  to help deal with sharp increase in demand. (PCs role is a short term measure) over a three month period.
• The increase in the amount of mental health related police callouts has been raised several times, including in a letter from PCC to Chief Executive Officer of local NHS. The Chief Constable gave the following update on work to implement ‘Right Care Right Person’ in Bedfordshire which includes NHS and Local Authorities. A four-phase delivery has now started with focus on data gathering.
• Health calls for service and concern for welfare (started now)
• AWOL and leaving care unexpectedly (commencing Nov. 2023)
• s136 as voluntary mental health cases (commencing Jan. 2024)
• Transportation and commuting of vulnerable people. (April 2024)
• Reviews in August 2024. Collection of data using Humberside as template. In 2021, 53,000 hours of police time was spent on mental health related calls, equivalent to 25 full time police officer duties per year. Average wait time to handover a MH patient was three hours. Resolving this will help free up police to do patrol our streets, cut crime and better provide the right support to vulnerable residents.
• op Rowan. In 10 Areas of the county. This has now increased to 14 areas. Lower Area Super Output (accounts for 20% of Serious Youth Violence) are the focus areas for these targeted patrols, so evidence based. Over 10,000 hours of patrols carried out so far.
• D) enquiry office:
• Priorty Based Budgeting carried out in 2014 to determine how well each enquiry desk service was being used relative to cost and outcomes. Lime Street and Dunstable had footfall of 2 people a day. The cost of employing staff there as well as cost of running the building was unjustifiable in terms of tax payers’ investment.
• Decision made to focus on Luton and Kempston with opening times 9am – 5pm Monday – Friday. Yellow boxes available at police buildings for member of the public to use. Strict guidelines now apply from College of Policing re: what lost and found items police forces can accept.
• A resident appears to have confused police uplift numbers with community officer numbers. Net annual increase of officers was 54 (2020/21), 53 (21/22), 72 (23/24) NOT community policing numbers. This is in public domain as part of minuted meeting of Delivery Board from September 2021. It is accurate that force now has the highest, dedicated number of officers budgeted for community policing. Abstractions are minimal unless in exceptional circumstances.
• The Chief Constable agreed to check on how FCR staff respond to cases where no deployable officer is available to attend job. How is this message communicated to caller? How can this be improved?
• Rural Crime police officers provide input during training of new officers. Chief was keen to encourage partnership with farmers to improve security, especially of livestock and farm equipment. Rural Crime Conference coming up later in the year.
• Discussion around forward planning for 2024/25 budget. FCR now getting about 600 calls a day, compared to 390 a few years ago. Budget next year to consider this.
• Attrition 5% to 10% is equivalent to 140 deployable officers over two years.  Attrition for new recruits fallen from circa 11% to 8% but more work is being done to improve this through a well resourced Student Hub.

Each week, the Commissioner has a one to one with Chief Constable Trevor Rodenhurst to get an update on force activity, raise matters that have been raised with me by residents, and liaise on key areas of policing (local, regional and national). 

The Chief and PCC operate a ‘No surprises’ policy.

With their permission, here are some of the things discussed today:

• Bedfordshire Police now first in country to implement innovative Case file redaction software which is now live. Redaction is required for Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) files. This is an extremely time consuming process for officers. This new technology does this automatically saving hours of work for the officers.
• A recent trial of a 70 page document took an officer 45 minutes to redact. The new software did it in four minutes with accuracy levels acceptable to CPS! This is now being used by detectives. There will be a review of the impact in a few months.
• There are a number of Tech solutions now being implemented in Bedfordshire Police (since April 2022)

– Public Access Terminals (latest instalment in University of Bedfordshire, Luton Campus)

– Web chat in Force Control Room 

– Redaction tool for Detective

• Expected Tech solutions in 2023/24

– Digital Asset Management System (allows public to seamlessly upload digital footage and images remotely and securely for the police as evidence)

– Customer Portal (this will make it possible for the first time for victims of crime to track the crime they reported, provide updates, be updated on the crime by simply logging in securely to a portal. Option for SMS and email updates)

– Update to Athena platform in January 2024

• Update on suspected murder in Bedford, ongoing work to prevent high harm crimes, and to get charging decisions for offenders.
• Report on another county lines network taken down in Bedfordshire.
• Ongoing concerns about cannabis cultivation in residential dwellings. The PCC received an update on Police activity to dismantle operations, local and regional implications.
• The Chief Constable agreed to provide high level data on prevalence of cannabis factories in the force area.
• Discussions were had on the Enquiry Office and the Force Policy on front desk provision. Chief Constable to provide data and rationale for closure or timings of front desk at police stations.
• Update on contact and support for officers who get injured while on duty. Convalescence provision is available. How is the force ensuring that all in incidents of assault on or injuries of police officers are reported? Reassured by Chief of priority being given to this support system. Asked to urgently inform him of any case where this duty of care is not taking place.
• Concerns raised by Chief as to Courts and CPS not always viewing police Body Worn Video (BWV), when considering cases of assault on police officers. PCC agreed to raise this with relevant partners.
• Op. Rowan is force response to Antisocial behaviour. Several areas across the county are included in this targeted operation. Chief Constable to provide PCC with details of areas where Op. Rowan is active, in line with ASB Awareness Week.
• Briefing on force policy re: seized property. Backlog now almost zero. Concerns raised by members of the public on how long it is taking to have seized items returned and need for better communication.
• Discussions were had on what more can we do to better identify at risk young people or individuals who come into custody that have younger siblings from a prevention point of view. 

The OPCC will continue to publish this information in line with Priority 6 – Transparency and Communication.