A new forum made up of the Safer Neighbourhood Panels leaders has met for the first time in Staffordshire.
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. They 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. Local residents and councillors sit on the panels. 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.
Safer Neighbourhood Panels have now been established in each district and borough of Staffordshire and in Stoke-on-Trent and the Chairs of each panel met to exchange ideas. The forum has been established to allow the leaders to discuss any issues in their local area and how they managed them. It will also provide the opportunity for the longer established panels to give advice and guidance to the newer panels.
Mr Ellis said: “The new forum is a fantastic way for the Safer Neighbourhood Panels to network and share ideas. Safer Neighbourhood Panels 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 new spotlight on local policing performance that Safer Neighbourhood Panels will bring is invaluable in adding to the rigour my office brings to overseeing policing.
“I make no apology for believing that truly local policing, and the public playing a part in influencing that policing, is vital.”
Lesley Harrison, Chair of Cannock Safer Neighbourhood Panel, said: “I felt the recent SNP Chairs’ Forum was useful for a number of reasons, not least of which was the opportunity to discuss issues we face within our panels and to recognise there are a great deal of similarities in our experiences. Not only is this reassuring for us, it is also a means for the
OPCC to identify with us where there are common needs for support, for example: in recruitment to panels, better means of engaging within our communities, considering training issues for panel members.
“As these forums develop they can be a medium for enabling us to set the agenda for our work, aligning local issues for SNP scrutiny and review to the OPCC’s priorities.
“It was also helpful to hear – and discuss with – Matthew Ellis his view of the role of the Safer Neighbourhood Panels, as well as his vision for policing in the County. Finally it was good to be able to put ‘faces to names’ so to speak!”
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 and stop and search in Staffordshire.
For more information on Safer Neighbourhood Panels and ETAP visit http://www.staffordshire-pcc.gov.uk/volunteer/
