This in from the office of Simon Hayes, in their own words. Ed
During the first of the Commissioner’s Performance, Accountability, Scrutiny and Strategy meetings (COMPASS), Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Hayes raised a number of issues with chief constable Andy Marsh as part of his responsibility to hold the chief constable to account on behalf of the public.
Dissatisfaction with 101 service
One of the areas of concern raised by the Commissioner was the anecdotal dissatisfaction with the 101 non-emergency number, in particular the length of the automated greeting message and response times, an issue that had been raised repeatedly with the Commissioner by members of the public.
Also discussed was the impact of sickness levels on the number of officers out on the streets, the low detection rates of serious violent crime, and the low uptake of out-of-court disposals by Hampshire and Isle of Wight officers.
Positive work and development
The Commissioner also highlighted the positive work and developments in the force’s performance: Violent crime against a person has gone down, the force is on track to achieve the victim satisfaction target set by the Commissioner, and there are already fewer ASB incidents than at the same time last year.
Commissioner Simon Hayes said:
“It’s an important aspect of my role to hold the chief constable to account on behalf of the public. In my meeting with him I have raised issues that members of the public have raised with me, such as the 101 service. I was reassured by the fact that the chief constable has recently commissioned a satisfaction survey among 101 users, the results of which will inform if and how we need to improve the service in order to meet the public’s needs.
“The chief constable raised with me his desire to have a greater variety of suitable out-of-court disposal tools. This is something I am planning to develop together with partner agencies during my term of office; and in fact in May I commissioned a project to develop the Hampshire Community Court scheme that will be allowing members of the community to take a direct role in determining appropriate intervention sentences for young offenders through a structured peer process. There are 1050 peer court schemes in operation in the United States with a great track record of reducing reoffending.”
Bi-monthly meetings
The COMPASS meetings, which will take place once every two months, have been set up as a forum for the Commissioner to publicly hold the chief constable to account.
They are recorded and made available on the Commissioner’s website
For the next COMPASS meeting taking place in August, the Commissioner will invite members of the public to submit questions in advance of the meeting – the exact details will be confirmed nearer the time. Work is underway to live-stream future meetings and invite subject experts.
To keep up to date with the developments around the COMPASS meetings, members of the public are encouraged to sign up to the Commissioner’s monthly bulletin via the My Settings tab on the Commissioner’s website www.hampshire-pcc.gov.uk, follow the Commissioner on Twitter @HantsPCC, or find the Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire on Facebook.
