Agenda item

To receive any public questions.

Note:

Written questions from the public can be submitted no later than seven days prior to the published date of the annual or any ordinary public meeting, for which a written response will be circulated to Panel Members and the questioner.

One question was received from Councillor Jonathan Essex (Borough and District: Reigate and Banstead) on behalf of a member of the public. The response can be found attached to these minutes as Annex A.

A supplementary question was asked by Councillor Jonathan Essex and the response can be found below.

• Supplementary question asked by Councillor Jonathan Essex on behalf of a resident:                                      

The questioner stated that since the coronavirus crisis started there had been an increase in speeding and in anti-social behaviour locally in terms of motorbike gatherings; and a drop in Community Speedwatch.

Concerning the original question, he noted that the rise in overt drug dealing in a sheltered older persons housing area - covered by CCTV - at the same time every week all with no clear on the ground police response was a concern. He queried that with an extra 150 officers budgeted by 2021/22 whether there would be a return to more on the ground community police presence in Surrey, such as neighbourhood policing especially where there was still a lower level of people movement due to the pandemic. Due to the return to higher police numbers as a result of funding replacing those officers lost due to Government cuts, he asked the PCC if areas without officers would be provided with them and if there would be a shift in approach to community policing.

Response:

The Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) replied that Surrey Police used its resources available to crack down on drugs and associated anti-social behaviour. It was a scourge in the county as it was nationally, and Surrey Police had a zero-tolerance policy; urging Panel members, residents and Surrey councillors to report incidents of drug dealing to Surrey Police via 101 - or 999 if there were security implications.

He positively commented that Surrey Police had made several good arrests of county lines drug dealers during lockdown. He provided assurance that there would be more police on the ground, noting that the force was in the first third of their recruitment programme with high grade trainee police officers slowly filtering onto the ground. Further details on recruitment was included as item 8 in the agenda.

The PCC noted that he had asked for a report from Surrey Police last year on how big the force should be, the answer was just over 500 more staff and police officers. By the end of March 2021 Surrey Police were expected to be halfway there, although future funding for the next financial year was uncertain. He replied that there would be a change of strategy as the biggest emphasis on recruiting was to allocate more officers on neighbourhood policing teams and every ward in the county would have a named police officer or an appropriate officer such as a Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) going forward. The PCC was concerned that there might not be an uplift in funding next year because of Covid-19 and strained public finances, and that Surrey Police’s retention rate was only satisfactory.