Police & Crime Panel - September 2025
September 13, 2025•1,135 words
Summary - Shire Hall
5th September 2025
A meeting summary, personal notes and comment. Authored by Cllr. Gareth Kitchen, SDC.
This article formed the basis of my brief report feeding into the Community Services and Licensing Committee at SDC.
Normal meeting formalities and we go straight to the Independent Custody Visitors' Annual Report. The Independent Custody Visiting Scheme gives us real insight into conditions in custody and provides reassurance that someone independent of the police is monitoring standards. The scheme is run by volunteers. Note that this is the only police custody suite in the whole of Gloucestershire. It was a good report highlighting staff professionalism and volunteer dedication. I asked about documentation quality as the report does not detail any new digital tools or audit schedules to assist. The no black representation on the ICVS Panel so not representative of the community. Also, in terms of ethnicity ‘not stated’ or 'unknown' is the largest group apart from white. I thought this gap was going to be filled by using police officers’ perceived ethnicity as the same question was asked last year. OPCC have to follow Home Office recording practice, apparently. It provoked some discussion and PCC thought there was value in recording for better understanding. 577 young people detained Cllr. wants to know if this figure is going down because we don't really want to see children being held in custody.
Next was a presentation on how PCCs use the Office of National Statistics (ONS) data to hold the chief (T/CC) to account. They use ONS and police data. They look at 100 metrics per month to compare constabulary performance. OPCC looks at data over a longer term trend. It changes month to month and can go up or down. They look for signals in the data. They can spot quite early when things happen. This triggers further investigation. Normal bounds are established for normal monthly fluctuation. They focus on breaches of these bounds (immediate flag). Three consecutive months close to limits also a flag. PCC loves the methodology, it helps him.
Sometimes the picture is different when MSF (Most Similar Forces) or national data is overlaid on the Gloucestershire data. Went on to show shop lifting and crime trend. DPCC says looking at local data in isolation can give a perverse picture of what's going on. But the presentation concluded, that when compared to MSF "Rising crime figures aren’t necessarily a concern", which I thought seemed complacent as the local pharmacy in my ward has CCTV screenshots of known shoplifters plastered over their door. The PCC and DPCC pointed out that they had identified and reacted to local spike. Operation Shield was voiced; police and other organisations promising action to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour in town and city centres. PCC detours into trust and confidence in policing. Links to ASB, shoplifting, e-bikes. But does mention new internal processes to deal with shoplifting. How this helps local businesses in Wotton, Dursley, Nailsworth and Stroud remains to be seen. Cllr. asks if other forces in the MSF group are having to deal with £12m deficits and is their performance improving? A work in progress.
Update from the PCC. Royal Air Tattoo went off well, huge effort. Meeting with GCC Chief Exec, good levels of communication. Operation Shield spent all the overtime budget for Jul, Aug, Sept, a six fold increase on patrol hours. Cheltenham and Gloucester seen more uniformed activity. Lead to more arrests, more stop and search and reduced ASB over Jul and Aug.
PCC and Constabulary put in much time in preparation for the protest at the immigration hotel in Gloucester. PCC says the assistant chief put out a message to the whole force about when you are involved in protests to remember the importance of being independent, impartial, no perception of two tier policing etc. Which is what they did. No arrests. Had help from other forces.
PCC had a meeting with Gloucester(?) MP about street medics and funding. One element of the night time economy and wants NHS to stump up more cash for this. PCC insists attending the Air Tattoo is not a 'jolly', DPCC joins in the defence. PCC, Police Reform Act, venues need to fund all aspects of policing.
PCC laments that the peaceful Palestinian Action protesters in London caused the Met to arrest over 500 people. Questions about custody capacity should that happen in Glos. No problem as they can use other forces custody suites, like Wiltshire's, if required.
Chief Executive Report: Taken as read. I noticed that the constabularies Chief Technology Officer has has recently resigned. They were only appointed in Spring 2023 as the Niche Core-RMS contract was signed. PCC says IT has been a problem the new IT expert has been a help delivering the change needed.
I asked, when it comes to performance monitoring, why isn't dis-proportionality measured? Just one Chief Constable, Sarah Crew of Avon & Somerset, stands alone (in our MSF group) in acknowledging Institutional Racism. Our constabulary is the worst in the MSF group, now 10 times more likely to be stop searched if you are black in Gloucestershire. There was powerful discussion at the recent community forum and I wanted to know if those demands were fed back and I wanted to know the PCC's position on IR. A: He finds the phrase difficult and thinks it could be used as a weapon. He wants to treat all protected characteristics the same. He needs to listen to the community and change the force so there's less discrimination. He maintains that his S&S find rate (HMI report) is the best in the country. DPCC says dis-proportionality in new plan. New priority, trust and confidence in policing. Comparing nationally. Work in progress. After this panel meeting, and for context, I've summarised why I focused in depth on this question in some video clips here.
Cllr looks at the £12m savings wants to know as 95% has been achieved what impact this has had? Another £9m saving will have to be made in future. TCFO says it's tough. However, they haven't seen a degradation of service. But..... they are in a minority of half a dozen forces who are going to struggle over the medium term to make future savings. 2026/27 they can make the savings but beyond that is going to be very difficult. Efficiency hopes pinned on the new Niche system. PCC would like to throw money at firearms licencing but doesn't have it. He's had to cut back his PCC fund too.
Quick discussion on future workplan. Meeting ends.