33 SUSSEX POLICE AUTHORITY REPORT OF THE SUSSEX POLICE AUTHORITY The Sussex Police Authority met at County Hall, Lewes, on Thursday, 22 July 2004. Attendances: Mr L H Barnard, Mrs M G Bishop, Mr K C Bodfish OBE, Dr L E Bush, Miss J A Corcho, Mr M Dunn, Miss A Graves, Mrs M D Johnson DL, Mr J Mortimer, Mr D O Rogers OBE, Mr I Scotland, Mrs A Swain, Mr R Thomas, Mrs M C Turner and Dr J M M Walsh RD. 1 The 2004/05 Sussex Police Consultation Strategy 1.1 The Force has produced a Sussex Police Consultation Strategy 2004/05 which comprises six key sections: · an overview of consultation including definitions, statutory obligations and principles of good practice; · consideration of those groups to whom the strategy applies including service users, the public (including hard to reach groups), staff and partner agencies; · a full summary of the consultative activities that are planned; · how the Force intends to share and publish the results of consultation exercises; · evidence of how consultation will inform and influence decision making both at the strategic and operational level; · a brief note of possible future consultative options. 1.2 Sussex Police is committed to delivering a strongly localised neighbourhood policing service. Consultation is an essential tool in building partnerships to deliver an effective, visible and accessible style of policing. 1.3 The Police Authority will now review its own Public Consultation Strategy published in 2002 to ensure that there is co-ordination with the consultation activities to be undertaken by Sussex Police. 2 Public Consultation Meetings – Autumn 2004 2.1 The Police Authority has agreed its programme of public consultation meetings for Autumn 2004. The Autumn programme builds on the success of the Spring programme of public meetings, which showed a noticeable increase of numbers of people attending. The new style allows the public to raise issues about policing within a structured programme. The new format seems to have been well received by the public, and the arrangements for the Autumn 2004 consultation events are as follows: CDRP Area Date/Time Venue Adur 4 December, 9am Tbc Arun 4 October, 6.30 pm Arundel Town Hall Crawley 30 October, 10am The Civic Centre, Crawley Eastbourne 8 September, 7pm Ocklynge School, Eastbourne Hastings 21 September, 7pm The Horntye Park Complex Horsham 14 October, 7pm Billingshurst Village Hall Lewes 18 October, 7pm Annecy RC Primary School, Seaford Mid Sussex 5 October, 7pm Clair Hall, Haywards Heath Rother 12 October, 7pm Battle Memorial Hall Wealden 28 October, 7pm State Hall, Heathfield Worthing 16 October, 10am Worthing Town Hall 34 SUSSEX POLICE AUTHORITY 2.2 The Spring meeting in Chichester was organised, with the Chichester Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP), on a much larger scale. It had been decided, therefore, not to hold another public meeting in Chichester in the Autumn as this might serve to dilute the success of the Spring meeting. Details regarding the success of the Chichester event are being sent to other CDRPs in Sussex who may wish to replicate the style of the event. There are separate arrangements for consultation in Brighton and Hove. 3 Domestic Violence 3.1 The Police Authority has considered the current position in Sussex with regard to domestic violence, in the light of national reports, draft guidance, and legislative changes. The central co-ordination of domestic violence strategy and policy in Sussex Police is the responsibility of the Specialist Investigation Branch (SIB) which is located at the Headquarters Criminal Investigation Department (HQ CID). 3.2 The reporting of domestic violence has increased nationally. Local and national research shows that victims are more willing to come forward to report incidents. However, this must be off set against recent research which indicates that a victim of domestic violence will typically have been subject to 35 incidents of abuse before they contact anybody in authority. National research shows that as many as one in four women and one in six men have been the victims of domestic violence. In Sussex, reporting patterns are reasonably consistent throughout the year with only a slight rise in the summer months. 3.3 Sussex Police has been involved in the drafting of the Association of Chief Police Officers’ guidance on dealing with domestic violence. The current draft guidance outlines the sensible steps needed to ensure that potential victims are identified early, that agencies work together and the police are able to investigate allegations effectively. The establishment of Specialist Investigation Units on divisions, and the creation of a Specialist Investigation Branch at HQ CID have addressed many of the recommendations that seek to create a better structure to deal with domestic violence within forces. 3.4 Initiatives have been developed in Brighton and Hastings to provide the victims of domestic violence with long term support. These schemes also offer specialist support to the children caught up in domestic violence. These schemes need to cover the entire Force area, in order to ensure all victims receive the best service. The Police Authority has approved a grant of £20,000 from the Joint Initiative Fund towards a project in Chichester to provide accommodation for women and children who have been subjected to domestic violence. 3.5 Sussex Police are committed to creating fully investigative Anti-Victimisation Units (AVUs), as recommended in the Chief Constable’s Force Operational Review (FOR). This year a greater focus has been placed on creating these units and more AVU staff will complete the Detective training programme this year. 3.6 Strong multi-agency links have enabled projects aimed at tackling domestic violence to start up and continue with success. For example Hastings and Rother AVU have won an award from the Government Office of the South East for having the best working model of good practice to reduce violence against women in the South East. Brighton and Hove AVU have continued to build on their partnership projects with Refuge, a Brighton based charitable organisation. 3.7 In May 2004 over forty new digital cameras were supplied to divisional Neighbourhood Policing Teams. These cameras have been introduced in order to capture 35 SUSSEX POLICE AUTHORITY evidential images at an early stage in crime investigation. This initiative arose from a need to improve the quality of evidence on domestic violence crime files, particularly for prosecutions where the victim is unwilling to contribute, a situation not uncommon in domestic violence. 3.8 The SIB are committed to creating strong links with pan-Sussex groups to tackle the diverse issues involved in domestic violence cases. The Domestic Violence officer within SIB attends and promotes the use of these groups. One such group is a pan-Sussex Domestic Violence Action Group which is producing a multi-agency Domestic Violence information leaflet. Staff in the SIB and divisional AVUs assist with the training of our statutory and non-statutory partners by giving presentations and joining in local multi-agency training. 3.9 The Chief Constable’s FOR has ensured that, in Sussex, specialist officers are committed to dealing with the breadth of issues that contribute to domestic violence. Each division has dedicated staff and systems to identify risk and, with others, to minimise harm. However, there is still much work to be done. In particular, improved management systems and joint risk assessment, between agencies, must be established in a way similar to child protection and dangerous offenders. The work currently being undertaken will identify and incorporate good practice and develop better systems and ways of working. 4 Firearms 4.1 Following the HMIC inspection in 2001, the manner in which Sussex Police deals with firearms matters has been completely changed. When the Sussex Force was re-inspected by HMIC in 2002, encouraging comments were made by the inspection team, including a number of areas of national good practice having been identified. 4.2 The Tactical Firearms Unit (TFU) created in 2002 continues to provide the firearms response for the Force. In the service plan year 2003/04 the Unit attended 3,225 grade 1 or 2 incidents, arrested 633 offenders and carried out 10,328 hours of patrol time in support of territorial divisions. No further significant changes are now planned for the Unit. 4.3 The armed policing at Gatwick Airport has been subject to review and a number of changes have been made in the method of policing the terrorist threat in response to threats identified. These mainly involve the planned counter-terrorist activities employed to deter and disrupt potential attacks. 4.4 In respect of firearms command, a change has been made in Force policy to better reflect the national model of command. Whereas Sussex Police maintained two tiers of strategic command, this has now been rationalised into a single standard, set at the higher level. The number of officers trained to perform this role remains small to ensure standards are maintained and officers receive suitable exposure to operations and training. 4.5 With regard to command training, two superintendents within the Force now deliver training and are assessors on the national gold and silver firearms command training programme. This ensures Sussex Police maintain the standard favourably commented upon by HMIC and promote Sussex Police as exponents of command expertise. A number of Forces have visited Sussex Police to examine its methods, and opportunities are provided for other forces to shadow the work of firearms commanders in Sussex. 4.6 The Codes of Practice on the Police Use of Firearms and Less Lethal Weapons came into force in December 2003 with compliance required by November 2004. Sussex Police were involved in many of the discussions which informed the writing of the codes and have been almost entirely compliant for some months.