A new independent panel that sees local people examine and shape the work of policing in East Staffordshire has met for the first time.
The Safer Neighbourhood Panels were launched under plans by Staffordshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Matthew Ellis, to shine the spotlight on local policing and make Staffordshire’s Police Service the most open, transparent and ethical in the UK.
The new panels examine, challenge and influence the work of police at a local level and hold Local Policing Team Commanders to account as well as looking at wider criminal justice and community safety issues in their area.
The panel for the East Staffordshire Local Policing Team met on Wednesday 10 August at Meadowside Leisure Centre in Burton and is the eleventh panel to be established.
Safer Neighbourhood panels are now up and running in all eleven Local Policing Areas throughout Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.
Local residents and councillors sit on the panels with magistrates bringing additional expertise. Panels influence local policing and community safety, scrutinise the work done by police in their area, give feedback to communities and examine the impact of community resolutions and restorative justice.
Mr Ellis said: “Safer Neighbourhood Panels which are being established in more and more areas carry out vital work. They provide challenge where challenge is needed looking at how local policing is operating and impacts the communities where panel members live.
“The spotlight on local policing performance that Safer Neighbourhood Panels bring is invaluable in adding to the rigour my office brings to overseeing policing.
“But it’s more than that. I make no apology for believing that truly local policing, and the public playing a part in influencing that policing, is vital. That’s why visible, neighbourhood policing is increasing over coming months and we’re establishing these new panels.”
Councillor Bernard Peters, East Staffordshire Borough Council, said: “The Safer Neighbourhood Panel is welcomed by the Community of East Staffordshire. The panel will focus on holding the Police Service and the Local Commander to account on a wide range of issues ranging from stop and search policy, use of Tasers, anti-social behaviour and domestic violence including child sexual exploitation – it is vital that policing decisions are transparent and they are held to account.
“Mathew Ellis, the Police and Crime Commissioner, has placed great emphasis on the benefits of new technology and how this will free up police time. Such activity is welcomed and the panel will be focused upon ensuring the money being spent on the modernisation of the police force will free up officer time to allow them to be more visible on the streets of Burton and Uttoxeter.
“The first meeting was a very encouraging start for all and further progress and enhanced partnership working is now anticipated by all.”
The panels follow the success of the county-wide Ethics, Transparency and Audit Panel (ETAP) which was established by the PCC in 2013. The ETAP is made up of trained members of the public and monitors different aspects of performance and standards in policing across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent. ETAP has received national recognition for its work on the police use of Taser, stop and search and crime recording in Staffordshire.
District, boroughs and Stoke-on-Trent City councils are being offered funding by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) to administer the new Safer Neighbourhood Panels on behalf of the PCC.
Mr Ellis added: “There’s a trilogy here which I set out back in 2013. Firstly, effective ‘very local’ oversight by the public of policing.
“Secondly, substantial increases in funding to local councils to help keep their areas safer as well as £2 million extra for community groups to bid through the People Power Fund and Proceeds of Crime Fund supporting simple ideas making areas and people safer.
“Thirdly, helping Staffordshire’s communities to help police in keeping us all safer by promoting and funding services like Crimestoppers and the reinvigorated Neighbourhood
Watch with more user friendly real time info, brand new investment and more support from the Staffordshire Police in co-ordinating the work.”
