An Inspector Calls

The next West Babergh Safer Neighbourhood Team Meeting is to be held on Tuesday 21^st May at Cockfield Village Hall at 6 p.m.  If you have any concerns about safety issues in your community this is a good opportunity to come and air them.   The police are always present at these meetings, and sometimes other partners, such as Highways or BDC, attend too.

I recently wrote to the new Police and Crime Commissioner, Tim Passmore, about the future of SNT meetings. Concern had been expressed by a number of people both about attendance levels and the degree to which the meetings would continue to receive support under the new arrangements.   The Commissioner himself has instigated local forums, called District Panels,  at which he meets the public, and there was uncertainly with regard to how the SNT meetings would fit in with these.  Furthermore no mention was made of SNT meetings in his recently published Policing Plan.

I am pleased to say that I have had an encouraging response from Tim.  SNT Meetings, it seems, are to remain at the heart of community policing, and renewed efforts are to be made to improve participation. 

The Commissioner’s own events are not intended to be a substitute for the SNT meetings.  He writes:-

The District Panel meetings…… are being introduced to give an opportunity for local people to meet and ask questions of both myself and local Police Commanders. The intention is that local people will gain a better idea of how the PCC will implement change in the Constabulary, as well as an overview of police initiatives to tackle crime, and current crime levels.

In addition to my correspondence with the PCC, I met our local police inspector, Paul Crick today, to discuss a number of community safety related issues.  I raised one or two difficulties that the local SNT meetings have been experiencing, in particular expressing the opinion that the numbers attending would be improved in the winter months if the timing of the meetings between September and March returned to 11 a.m. rather than 6 p.m.   Cold winter evenings do not encourage people to show up, and numbers at the morning sessions that we held previously were generally much better than the evening ones.  

I hope that this change can be made by the Autumn.

Inspector Paul Crick