Information

1 Welcome and introductions.

Attendees:
PFCC Danielle Stone (DS)
DPFCC Marianne Kimani (MK)
Jonny Bugg (JB)
Paul Fell (PF)
Vaughan Ashcroft (VA)
CC Ivan Balhatchet (IB)
DCC Ash Tuckley (AT)
ACC Adam Ward (AW)
Det Chief Supt Liz Wilcox (LW)
Nick Alexander (NA)
Stuart McCartney (SMc)

DS welcomed everyone to the meeting.

2 Minutes and decisions of previous meeting

The actions were circulated and updates were provided by the Force. The issue relating to Domestic Abuse would be covered by the Agenda and the DCC provided an update in relation to the Countywide Complaints Unit, and there would be an update provided to the January meeting. SMc to update the action log to this effect.

3 Part 1

Domestic Abuse
The Deputy PFCC noted that discussions on this subject had taken place earlier in the year and requested that actions are captured so issues are not missed. The Force then provided an update relating to their performance relating to arrest rates and how risks are assessed and managed. The Chief Constable then updated the meeting on the new protocols being utilised by the Force and the work being undertaken to take learning when a conviction has not occurred. The Commissioner noted the need to look at the potential of bias and the differing treatment of men and women. The Chief Constable explained that examples of bad practice were being used in training and the Deputy Chief Constable explained that the force were looking at first encounters to help improve how staff deal with DA victims. The Force also explained how the response to DA incidents is improving and noted that the RAPID campaign resulted in a slight increase in arrests. The Chief felt that the force needs to push officers to think differently. The Commissioner felt this highlighted that there is still bias in the system which needs addressing and that the force need to have measures in place to improve their response to DA. The CC responded and noted that officers need to be better assess risk, evaluate the surroundings and trust their instincts. The Force then explained that work was being taken in several areas to improve their response. The Commissioner then asked why there was a difference in performance between the North and West. The Force responded and explained reviewing the data should help to manage the demand better. The Commissioner asked if the Force were tracking data in relation to DA within different communities and were the Force working with partners on this issue. The OPFCC Performance Director noted this was the third time this issue had been discussed and the force had previously suggested that the discrepancy in performance was the result of not co-locating certain staff on West. He noted the OPFCC had offered to help by asking which staff needed to be co located. The DCC responded stating that he did not think that this was a key issue in this as a discrepancy. It was also noted that the Commissioner had previously asked the force to identify for her what good looked like in relation to DA investigations and how the Office could help, and she still awaited a response in relation to this.

The Commissioner requested and the Chief Constable agreed to provide a holistic report by the end of December 2025 that outlined what the issues were relating to sub optimal results relating to DA investigations, how these could be resolved and what support might be required, as well as identifying what the Chief Constable considered good looks like in relation to performance measures and indicators. The Commissioner made it very clear that the current position was not acceptable and improvements were expected. It was agreed that Detective Chief Superintendent Wilcox would produce this report.

This was added to the action log for the end of 2025.

Assurance Statement:

The Commissioner expressed her concerns that she raised this point in May 2025, again in September as was now doing so again, and she considered that there had not been any discernible performance improvement. It was also noted that the Force had failed to provide and updates in relation to the two issues raised above and that this was not acceptable.
The Commissioner expressed that she was not assured in relation to force performance in relation to how it managed DA investigations and expected the promised report to be delivered to her by the end of this year.

Knife Crime

The ACC updated the meeting on knife crime and explained the national and local definitions, both of which are tracked by the Force. He outlined the performance journey and the work undertaken since 2019, which had significantly improved performance. He explained the holistic approach being utilised with partner agencies is delivering improvement and helping to change the culture. The Commissioner asked whether this approach had been written up, the ACC responded and noted that the Force have a number of good case studies. The Performance Director asked if the rise in the number of repeat offenders was due to the force improving performance or if people were more willing to carry knives. The ACC responded and noted if was due to a combination of both and the growing influence of youth culture underlined the importance of working with partners in relation to both prevention and reducing the numbers. The Commissioner noted the need to consider the vulnerability of girls and the provision of safe spaces. The Performance Director noted the work of the Saints foundation and how he was aware that they specifically focused some attention on young girls.

Assurance statement:

The Commissioner stated that she remained concerned and focused on this matter as she believed that this was a concern to local people but that she recognised the improvements in performance since 2019, a lot of which had been supplemented by partnership activity, which was pleasing.

She stressed that whilst this needed to remain a priority, she was assured by the level of understanding of the issues and the approach taken by the Force at this time.

Robbery

The ACC updated the meeting on the reported increases and noted it mirrored the national trend but at a lower rate. He then explained how the Force were looking at the work of the Retail Crime Team, relating to business robberies, a large proportion of which were shop thefts, combined with threats of or actual violence. The force confirmed that while there was a significant increase they had reviewed this and this was as a result of changes in national crime recording rules rather than new offences taking place. In terms of personal robbery, there had a been a reduction over the 12 month period but work was needed to improve outcomes for victims as well as assessing and responding to incidents. The Commissioner asked if the Force were happy with the quality of investigations. The ACC responded and noted it was a mixed bag and explained the Force review the situation every six weeks to see what learning can be taken and fed back to the front line. The Chief Constable explained the importance of managing people’s workloads and the need to manage demand better to improve the Force’s response. The DCC also added the need to address outdated working practices and culture. The Force also noted that importance of evaluating the work being delivered to evalute and identify areas where interventions are needed.

Poor positive outcome rates were discussed as a part of the conversation about robbery investigations.

Assurance statement

The Commissioner was assured that the Force had a good understanding of the reasons for the increase in business related robbery in the County. She was concerned in relation to the poor positive outcome rate. Both she and the Chief Constable agreed that this was so and that improvements needed to be made in this respect.

Part 2

HMICFRS child protection inspection

The Force provided an update on the recent child protection inspection and the work undertaken to respond the recommendations within the report. It was felt that the report was a positive one for the Force In a number of respects but there were some specific area where improvements were required. and work was ongoing to address some of the outstanding issues raised by HMICFRS. The Commissioner sought assurance if the Force knew if children are safe and did they know the level of child exploitation in the county. The OPFCC Chief Executive asked if the Force were working with OPFCC’s Youth Team. The Chief Constable noted that HMICFRS set out the importance of joint working which was an issue in other areas of the country.. The OPFCC Performance Director reflected that the update demonstrated the Force have a grip on this area of work and recognise where the weaknesses are. He also noted the strong leadership and partnership demonstrate strong building blocks for this area of work, facts recognised by HMICFRS, both in this inspection and in a recent revisit where they made positive observations in relation to the manner in which the force had responded to their findings

Assurance Statement:

The Commissioner was pleased with significant parts of the HMICFRS inspection report from earlier this year relating to Child Protection arrangements. She received updates from the Force in relation to the work being undertaken to address the areas for improvement identified. She was especially pleased about the observations relating to senior leadership and partnership working, as well as the recent observations from HMICFRS about the manner in which the force had responded in a positive fashion to the observations made and that a recent revisit had made the comments that some of the areas for improvement had been completed.

4 AOB

No further business was raised.