West Mercia Police chief constable highlights importance of effective policing

This comes after the latest perception survey showed a fifth of the respondents said that they see a police officer once a week. Of those who completed the survey three-fifths were ‘satisfied’ with the level of policing in West Mercia.

John Campion, West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner led a ‘public assurance and accountability session’ focused on police visibility and contact.

During the meeting, Mr Campion put questions submitted by the public to Pippa Mills, chief constable of West Mercia Police.

“I’m aware that too many people aren’t satisfied with the visibility and accountability of police in their area and have a genuine fear of crime,” said Mr Campion.

“Overwhelmingly the vast majority of questions for this session were around the perception of not seeing or rarely seeing police officers patrolling their community.”

Mrs Mills said that she understands the value placed on having a visible police presence, but it should not measure effectiveness.

She said: “It’s really important to be clear that the effectiveness of police should be measured on the absence of crime and disorder as opposed to the visibility of the police in dealing with it.

“I absolutely understand speaking to communities and residents the value that’s placed on having that visible police presence.”

Mrs Mills said that during June police officers in West Mercia travelled 700,000 miles with two-thirds of those by marked cars.

She added that overall crime was down seven per cent since April which meant 2,000 fewer victims of crime during the same period.

The chief constable added that behind the safer neighbourhood teams was a road safety team, road policing unit and operational policing unit.

“I absolutely recognise the importance that’s placed on physical patrolling and physical policing in our communities,” Mrs Mills added.

She added that in the force area, there were eight ‘mobile police stations’ going out into more remote community villages.

Mr Campion then asked the chief constable how the force balances public priority and the demand on resources, along with giving reassurance that they are delivering police priorities.

“It’s how we work smart, how we work in a visible way,” replied Mrs Mills.

“Even if we’re focusing on crime which isn’t necessarily a local priority if it’s vulnerability or hidden harm and actually how we do that and how we publicise that, how we tell the public what we’ve been doing.

“Balancing all that alongside that visible, accessible local police presence which is so important for our communities.

“I’d like to see officers out and about in their communities. The measure of it is the effectiveness of what we’re doing and whether that’s through reduction of crime.”

Mr Campion then asked the chief constable if more could be done around visibility under the current resources.

“If it’s something that makes people feel more confident then I’d like to see that increase,” added Mrs Mills. “It’s something that we focus on and looking that those public confidence figures is something that as a force we focus on.

“Looking at how we maximise the number of police officers working effectively and recognising visibility is a concern based on public perception.”

Mrs Mills said that the force’s Safer Neighbourhood Teams were full of ‘incredibly dedicated officers’ and police community support officers (PCSO) show a ‘real visible face’ who know their local communities.

Mr Campion also questioned the chief constable about when officers are ‘abstracted’ from communities to carry out other police work.

Mrs Mills said: “A really fundamental thing that the public expect is when they ring 999, the phone gets answered and if they need an emergency response that there are officers there to assist them.

“It is a very careful balance. If we’re abstracting officers from other core duties to start off or respond to emergencies that is something that I monitor really carefully.”