Police and Crime Plan
The Police and Crime Plan is created and published by the Police and Crime Commissioner and outlines his priorities for the area and how he will work with partners to achieve them.
I am proud of the work that has been achieved since I was first elected as Police & Crime Commissioner in May 2021. Thames Valley Police has a record number of police officers and key crimes such as burglary are down significantly since before the pandemic.
Serving the public as PCC is a huge privilege and I am passionate about making our communities safer. I have driven forward important work such as Op Deter to help tackle knife crime, which has resulted in significant reductions in knife-enabled offences and Thames Valley being recognised as one of the safest parts of the country.
Over the last year I have successfully pushed for increases in neighbourhood policing and improvements in tackling retail crime. We are starting to see the benefits of this work on our streets with more police and more criminals charged; but there is more to do.
In this document I set out my vision for policing in Thames Valley for the coming years. I will work closely with the Chief Constable to deliver for all of our communities, ensuring common sense policing, cutting crime and catching criminals.
Matthew Barber (Police & Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley)
Protecting Communities
Recruiting more police officers, supporting neighbourhood policing and focussing on driving down the crimes that matter most to the public.
Protecting People
In order to protect people from the most serious offences, we will seek to prevent crime in the first place; relentlessly pursuing criminals who pose a threat to others and supporting victims to guide them through the Criminal
Justice System and rebuild their lives.
Protecting Property
Although crimes, such as burglary, are at historically low levels and have fallen since before the pandemic, the impact is significant and public confidence is undermined if the police are not seen to tackle these issues.
Police and Crime Plan 2024 – 2029
You can find out more about the key priorities included within the Police and Crime Plan, below, and you can download a copy of the plan using the button, below:
Key priorities
Protecting Communities
Many of the biggest concerns the public have are not related to serious crime. Anti-social behaviour does not always have a direct victim, but it can make whole communities feel unsafe. Some of those who pose the greatest risk on our roads often do so through recklessness and negligence, rather than criminal intent.
Enforcement is important in all of these areas, but the police cannot act alone. Local authorities and schools can and must play a significant role in tackling these issues.
Confidence in policing and the safety of the society we live in really matters. Even in low crime areas, perception can create fear that has a real impact on people’s lives. In a social media age the challenges are greater than ever, but the need to build confidence also becomes more important than ever before.
Protecting People
The police are the only people who can arrest dangerous individuals and present them to prosecutors in order to protect others. Whether it is domestic abuse, those who carry knives on our streets, or predatory sex offenders online, that action is vital.
The identification and pursuit of persistent offenders is key as is wider education and prevention, particularly in the world of domestic abuse where we know that child victims and witnesses
are more likely to go on to experience domestic abuse as adults, either as victims or as perpetrators themselves. Similarly, those who carry weapons with the misguided justification of protection are much more likely to end up being victims.
As well as dealing with individual offenders, we must seek to break these cycles in order to see a generational reduction in sexual and serious violence.
Protecting Property
Thames Valley Police has a good record of reducing the levels of burglary; the Rural Crime Taskforce has begun to have a real impact in isolated communities and the Retail Crime Strategy is showing signs of a strong start. Nevertheless, there is more to be done.
We must redouble our efforts in these areas, ensuring that concerns about vehicle crime are addressed. More visible, proactive neighbourhood policing teams will help to deter and detect
criminals in these important areas.
Traditional policing will, however, not be adequate to tackle the growing risk of cybercrime and fraud, yet it is one of the biggest challenges facing us.
Investment in specialist resources, such as the use of drones and digital forensics, will help to bring criminals to justice but prevention is once again key if we are to stop people from becoming victims in the first place.
What is a Police and Crime Plan?
Under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 the PCC must produce a Police and Crime Plan which sets out the Commissioner’s strategic police and crime objectives for the Thames Valley with regard to:
- The policing of the area;
- Crime and disorder reduction, and
- The discharge by Thames Valley of its national or international functions
The Plan must also cover:
- The policing of Thames Valley which the Chief Constable is to provide
- The financial and other resources which the Commissioner is to provide to the Chief Constable
- The means by which the Chief Constable will report to the Commissioner on the provision of policing
- The means by which the Chief Constable’s performance in providing policing is measured
- The crime and disorder reduction grants which the Commissioner is to make, and the conditions (if any) of those grants
The Plan draws upon a wide range of information from the police, community safety and criminal justice partners to ensure it reflects the police and crime issues which are affecting the Thames Valley. It also covers a much wider range of service responsibilities than any plan previously developed by the police, community safety partnerships (CSPs) or any other individual community safety responsible authority. The Plan will bring together the priorities of all agencies and authorities with a responsibility for cutting crime and improving community safety.
Each relevant agency produces their own annual service delivery plan. For example Thames Valley Police will continue to develop, in consultation with the PCC, its own internal annual Delivery Plan which will reflect the strategic policing objectives contained in the PCC’s Police and Crime Plan.