Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 36
36
Deferred
Paragraph: 81
Urge policing leaders to recognise scale of change and foster open dialogue with citizens.
Conclusion
We appreciate the openness of those who gave evidence, but fear that under pressure leaders can default to a defensive position, missing opportunities to help the public understand the challenges they face or to build trust by admitting mistakes. We 64 Policing priorities urge leaders across policing to recognise the true scale of the changes needed and the benefits of open dialogue with citizens, notwithstanding that some operational details will need to remain confidential.
Government Response Summary
The government deflects the recommendation for policing leaders to engage in open dialogue and admit mistakes to build trust by instead detailing crime prevention initiatives, funding for Violence Reduction Units, and overall crime reduction statistics.
Paragraph Reference:
81
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
91. The evidence tells us that the police do have a role in crime prevention. For example, hotspot policing, when deployed effectively, helps prevent crime. The Government also recognises that policing alone cannot prevent all crimes from taking place, other agencies also have a role to play. 92. Since 2019, the Home Office has provided over £160m to fund our local network of Violence Reduction Units (VRUs), which tackle the drivers of violent crime, and provided over £165m to boost visible police patrols in serious violence hotspots; with a further £55m invested in VRUs and £30m in hotspot policing in 23/24 alone. Evaluation of VRUs impact reflects both VRU and GRIP preventative work. The latest published findings show that since funding began, from April 2019 to December 2021, an estimated 136,000 violence without injury offences had been prevented. Based on these offences avoided, a return on investment of £4.10 for every £1 of SV funding was estimated. 93. As part of our response to exploitation, we have invested £3.9m since 2019 in the Prevention Programme. The programme is delivered by the Children’s Society working with a range of partners, across sectors to tackle and prevent child sexual abuse and exploitation, child criminal and financial exploitation and modern slavery and human trafficking on a regional and national basis. Since the programme began it has reached over 56,000 people. 94. In 2021 the Government published the Beating Crime Plan, focusing on how we cut crime, reduce the number of victims and make our country safe. The Plan combines deterrence and enforcement with prevention. It is encouraging to see that, as set out in paragraph 4, overall crime levels have fallen by 10% in the year to June 2023.