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Southend Police Station Victoria Avenue Southend-on-Sea SS2 6ES Tel: 101
4th January, 2016.
Dear Manager, The national media has widely reported the reductions in Police funding over the last 5 years and even though the Chancellor announced that there would be no further cuts to policing in his most recent comprehensive spending review, the demanding savings targets from the last review still need to be met. Unfortunately this means that there will be reductions in Police Officers and Police Staff this year. In October 2015 Essex Police announced upcoming changes to Neighbourhood Policing across the force and I wanted to write to you to let you know how these changes will impact the Town Beat Section (TBS) and our approach to retail crime investigation in Southend. The Town Beat Section currently has 6 constables and 7 PCSOs. They are part of the Neighbourhood Policing structure and have been responsible for patrolling the town and seafront and dealing with crimes committed during their tour of duty in those areas. They have been working early and late shifts to cover retail opening hours and evening demand on the seafront and have dealt with the overwhelming majority of shoplifting crimes as well as tackled issues around missing people, homelessness, anti-social behaviour and street drinking. The TBS have given us an excellent service over the years and have become a much appreciated fixture within the town centre. Outside of the Town Centre we have had a dedicated officer from the Neighbourhood Policing Team dealing with most retail crime, conducting the initial investigation, preparing CCTV evidence and then passing arrest-ready packages to our Local Policing Team to progress. This has allowed us to effectively and efficiently manage a large number of offences and provide retail outlets with a consistent point of contact. The new policing structure will see the formation of a single Community Policing Team with 11 constables and 7 PCSOs (although this number may change subject to a review in the next few weeks). The current Neighbourhood Policing Team structure (24 constables and 26 PCSOs) will be disbanded. This means that the Town Beat Section and retail crime officer will no longer operate - a considerable change for the retail and leisure community in Southend. The new Community Policing Team will include 2 officers who will be dedicated to Town Centre and seafront policing.
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PC Martin Knights and PC Marc Cann have been selected for these roles because of their excellent knowledge of the town. They will be tasked with working to resolve problems relating to threat, harm and risk such as nuisance youths, homelessness and street drinking and any other on-going crime or anti-social behaviour issues occurring in the town and on the seafront. They will also be tasked to work with businesses who are victim of the highest number of crimes in order to reduce offences. The primary role of Martin and Marc will be crime and harm prevention, so they will not routinely respond to reports of shoplifters or be tasked through the Town Link radio system. In this respect they will work very differently to the TBS. Martin and Marc will be working together on a 6-on-3-off shift pattern so will not be at work every day of the week. They will work between 8am and 9pm routinely, but will be able to cover outside of these times when the need arises. Martin and Marc will also be on hand during the busier months of the year to help resolve some of the persistent issues of the sea front area. Martin and Marc can work with Trading Standards for example to help reduce the number of rogue traders. When Martin and Marc are off duty any urgent issues will be picked up by PC Amber Sawyer who will normally cover the central Southend area. Where any person or business wishes to report a crime or other incident to the police this will now need to be reported to our Force Control Room by dialling 101 (999 should only be used where someone is in on-going danger). In the vast majority of cases these reports will be responded to by the Local Policing Team, currently operating out of Westcliff Police Station until Southend is refurbished. Crimes and shoplifters detained can no longer be reported via the Town Link radio, which was originally conceived as a mechanism for contact between stores rather than to call the police, or to a specific officer directly. This change may be reported as police withdrawing from the town centre and seafront. Please let me reassure you that this is not the case. We will still deal with crimes reported and will still look to identify and prosecute offenders. The crimes that are committed will be dealt with by a team of over 100 officers on the Local Policing Team. Taking responsibility for investigating crimes and dealing with prisoners away from PC Knight and PC Cann will give them more time to focus on crime and harm prevention, to work with partners to make Southend safer. The change to the Community Policing Team will start to take effect from the 18 th January 2016. From this date the Town Beat Section and Retail Crime Officer will no longer be available and PC Knights and PC Cann will take on their new roles. A reduced capacity of CPT Officers may impact on the many events which take place within the town centre. We will support these events where we can, but we will discuss these changes with the BID and Community Events Team so that they can militate properly against the reduction of available policing.
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In respect of PCSOs, until the beginning of April 2016 we will retain 5 of the TBS PCSOs, who will remain dedicated to the Town Centre. From 4th April 2015 the reduction in PCSO numbers will take effect and we will no longer be able to dedicate them to the town and seafront. They will instead be deployed across the whole district according to latest intelligence and crime threats. PCSO’s do not and never have had specific powers of arrest and their conditions of employment are far different to that of a constable; however, over the last few years they have been able to attend incidents within the town centre environment which are right on the cusp of their roles and responsibilities because of the proximity of TBS constables. Now that there will not be the number of TBS officers deployed regularly on the High Street, it makes the deployment of PCSO’s into the town centre a little more challenging and something that may not be achievable on a day to day basis. The cuts to policing have forced us to make some very difficult decisions as to how we will police the county. The size of the reductions means that we could only retain a dedicated retail crime team at the expense of our ability to respond to emergency incidents or investigating more serious and harmful crimes, such as domestic abuse. I believe this would have been the wrong decision and would have placed people in harm’s way, something I am not prepared to allow to happen. As we move into this new policing structure I ask for your support in reducing the demand on policing from the retail and leisure sector, so that we have capacity to deal with the crimes and incidents causing people most harm. Please can you consider what you can do to keep customers and property safe and to prevent shoplifting offences in particular. If you, your staff or your security teams can do anything to stop a crime happening then please take that opportunity. We would urge your security teams or specific members of staff to consider membership to the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme (CSAS); this will enable you to share police information about persistent offenders, vulnerable people and other specific issues. It will also assist you to integrate into the responsibilities of the Street Rangers and with those other premises that have CSAS accredited staff. Local Community Meetings currently held across the borough help us to set priorities according to resident’s needs; we are happy to consider a Town Centre Community Meeting and Martin and Marc will be able to host these to discuss crime prevention and reduction best practice and to listen to your concerns. Business Watch has been running in Leigh and Shoebury for the past 6 months and this could be extended into the town centre – Business Watch is an electronic version of the ERAC (Essex Retail against Crime) folder which some of you may remember; in essence it is a photo album of persistent offenders which assists in the identification of offences. All of these measures will be essential if the retail community of Southend is to become more cohesive in their effort to improve the safety and security of the town centre.
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The change in policing structure will be challenging, but rest assured that whilst our numbers might be reducing our commitment and resolve to keep the people living, working and visiting this town safe is undiminished. We invite you to attend the South Essex College POD, which is situated on the 2 nd Floor Walkway of the main College facility in Luker Road, Southend at 6pm – 7pm on Wednesday 13th January 2016, in order to discuss the contents of this letter and have further clarification if required. Perhaps you would be kind enough to e mail Ian.Hughes@essex.pnn.police.uk if you would like to attend.
Yours sincerely,
Chief Inspector Simon Anslow, Southend-on-Sea District Commander.
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