Gloucestershire Police & Crime Panel - July 2025

Summary - Shire Hall

11th July 2025

A meeting summary, personal notes and comment. Authored by Cllr. Gareth Kitchen, SDC.

This will form the basis of a brief report feeding into the Community Services and Licensing Committee at SDC.

Webcast of meeting. Agenda packs etc. Minutes

No formal apologies and the Panel seems pretty full. New Chair to be elected, I was a bit surprised that there were two nominations. Cllr. Ray Brassington from Cotswold District Council and Cllr. Anne Radley Gloucester City Council, both are Lib Dem. This was as close to political drama as you'll get on this panel, Ray narrowly won. Anne was voted in as deputy. One councillor asked the Chair if he may have an interest to declare because he knew Martin Surl the previous PCC, the Chair says not.

Balancing the demands in the constabulary

The Temporary Chief Constable (T/CC) kicks off and decides to take questions as they arise (uh ho, big mistake, councillors love to shoot the breeze given half a chance, this will be a long meeting). Some crime dealt with nationally and regionally. Some local crime is cross county border. Then gave an overview of events they police. Fairford Air Show, Cheltenham etc. The county diversity. 70 different languages spoken, esp. Gloucester.

National challenges; Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), Terrorism, Serious and Organised Crime (SOC), National Cyber Incidents, Child Sexual Abuse (CSA), Public Disorder, Civil Emergencies. Priorities; Investigating Crime, Safer communities, efficient organisation and ethical leadership. Then the brilliant Statistics info-graphic, all the relevant data concisely presented :-

First of a long interjection of questions; Fraud and cyber-crime. Numbers low because they are handled nationally in the first instance, then handed back locally. Move to Domestic Abuse crimes on the increase. CSA under-reported. 12,100 ASB incidents reported this year and on the rise. Need to work with partners to combat. Cllrs. wants breakdown of ASB, another wants info on repeat offenders, another wants info a charge rates. Then some info on SOC. A few Cllrs. ask about ward specific incidents which detracts from the presentation then others chip in. I sense some frustration and the Chair wants to move things along. Chief sits patiently waiting to continue, nearly restarts, but more, less than relevant, digression and ad-hoc questions. We need to work on this, as a Panel, it reduces our effectiveness.

Chief finally moves onto the challenges and high level pressures. Funding; exposed and future costs exceed budgets. Reputation; Ongoing issues have damaged trust and confidence (previous CC and their deputy suspensions, I guess). Performance. Challenges in operations, workforce (last meeting's survey) and technology. IT provision had gaps in capability hindering efficiency. Crime Command, improvements required. Recent inspection revealed issues and significant work to improve these areas.

Then moves to finance. Half budget is police officers, cannot flex here, set in stone. Gloucestershire is a small force. Cllr. asks if Mark Rowley (Met Pol) is right to say that police forces should amalgamate. Asks about co-operating with other forces. T/CC confirms that already happens. Chair wants to move things along. T/CC seems to express some frustration with central Govt. interference as local resources are limited (more than valid imho). More Cllr. questions, now talking about AI (Artificial Intelligence). Sigh. (AI is more central Govt. distraction imho. Workplans all over the place are dripping in its hype). Now we move onto the important stuff for ward councillors; Neighbourhood Policing. Quick overview. Govt. wants to publish new commitments that need to be in-place by month end. More questions on ward/district area mapping. I get to ask about how these 23 new Neighbourhood Police are funded because, after reading the backing papers, this £1.5m is a grant for the current year. (That's going to become a £2m. efficiency saving next year, surely!!) T/CC confirms that future funding is unknown at this point! (How can the T/CC plan when funding is so haphazard? ).

T/CC wraps up. Finally, I get to ask my question. My primary concern is about the 'safer communities' priority. Hate crime seems to run at 10% of DA and ASB. My inbox is full of race/hate related e-mails. Pride month and political rhetoric the drivers. Sections of the community have next to no confidence in the police dealing with race/hate matters. How do we build confidence in community that the constabulary takes this crime seriously so that we can improve the race/hate reporting rate?

T/CC says wants all communities to be safe. She is the force's race lead. The force meets daily, every incident is reviewed including race/hate and issues taken straight to the neighbourhood teams, although concedes that analytics to CSPs may take longer. She mentions a Community meeting on the 31st July in Gloucester. A reassuring reply but will there be similar for the LGBTQ+ community?

Chair wants to move on but DPCC chips in with some responses to earlier questions. PCC encourages Cllrs. to sign up to the ride along scheme.

Update from the Police and Crime Commissioner

PCC thanks prior chair and his inclusive style and would like to continue in that spirit. PCC worries about 4,500 new houses straddling the Tewksbury/Cheltenham border and recently put in a S106 request for a new police station which was refused. PCC wants a more serious approach to cannabis and spiking. He has submitted a witness statement to the House of Lords Constitution Committee about trust and confidence in policing; an interesting read. Estate maintenance being reviewed, placement of stations. He thinks recruitment is going really well. (but I've seen evidence PRAP is stalled because of staff budget cuts, can't really ask a question as it's unrelated and the meeting is way behind schedule). Cllr. wants help amending drink spiking policy at their council. PCC says definitions need tightening.

OPCC CEO Report

CEO reports continuous innovation, she wants to do more in communities. Cllr. asks a number of questions. Annie White at OPCC is a good contact for Cllrs. to bridge with Neighbourhood Policing teams. Hotspot mappings, localised reports via the CSPs. CEO will make sure that CSP report comes to panel members. DPCC gave a quick road safety update on road user groups, full presentation to follow. Cllr. asks about youth justice system, too late once kids are in it. Disappointed the preventative Aston project is being pulled. Also surprised that the staffing association were left to support suspended people rather than HR. CEO confirms that a robust risk assessment and support is in place.

Beth Gardiner directed by CEO to give a brief talk on vulnerable children. PCC supports the public health approach to policing but not enough finance to pay all the constabulary staff. Also, says that PCSO numbers had to fall inline with national average and it was PCSOs who worked on the Aston project, that's why it was pulled. GCC has stepped in to take on.

I get to ask a question about the County Hate Crime Strategic Group. I want more a detail and how it relates to the County Hate Incident & Gloucestershire Prevent and Partnership Board. Beth Gardiner again steps in to say she's been doing administrative support for the group but now a new Chair, Joseph-James Picknel, is in place and Steph Lawrence is the Constabulary lead. I'll be forwarded contact info.

Cllr. sees bad news stories in the press before the Panel is notified (another suspension for the ex-CC, I guess). CEO says they couldn't go direct because of the local elections caused a state of flux with the Panel membership. The Chair read about it Gloucestershire Live too! The entire panel look (glare) in the direction of Carmelo Garcia (the local democracy reporter who covers local authorities in Gloucestershire) who is busy taking notes at the end of the room! lol.

More Cllr. questions. ASB not looking good compared to other forces. CEO says that there is lots of good work going on. Has to be a partnership approach. Operation Shield was well supported by partners, will feedback.

Work Plan

Transformation overview had to go to November because of the election. I noticed the OPCC's Audit Committee's risk register is up for discussion next month, but the constabulary's risk register is far more interesting for the Panel. CEO says they'll incorporate it too. Bah, Estate Management, I should have asked if the increasing footprint using fire-stations still on the cards. Last year one was slated for Wotton but the meeting's closed.