Agenda item

This report provides an update on emerging issues in respect of police and community safety reform, seeks policy guidance on these, and considers the implications for the Council and the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP).

Members considered a report which provided an update on emerging issues in respect of police and community safety reform, sought policy guidance on these issues and discussed their implications for the Council and for the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP).

The report summarised the policy themes and recommendations arising from the recently published Police and Justice Bill, which included recommendations from the review of the Crime and Disorder Act.  The Bill covered a wide range of proposals in respect of police reform, crime and anti-social behaviour, and a single inspectorate for Justice, Community Safety and Custody.  The review acknowledged the significant changes that had occurred since the creation of Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) and sought to provide guidance on how they should be modelled and run in future.  In particular, it recommended that CDRPs be subject to scrutiny by local authority scrutiny committees and that CDRPs and Police Basic Command Units (BCPs) should share coterminous boundaries.  In respect of previous Home Office proposals to create a Strategic Police Force / Authority for the region, it was reported that orders had now been laid before the House of Commons, and the Council had until 11 August to lodge any objections. 

Members commented that, due to changes in management at the Home Office a more acceptable “federated” option to the merger of police forces might now be open for consideration.  They expressed concern that the governance proposals for CDRPs would reduce the accountability of the Safer York Partnership (SYP) to local residents and that introducing coterminous boundaries would result in a loss of focus on York issues. 

Having considered the advice of the Shadow Executive, it was

RESOLVED: (i) That the recommendations of the Police and Justice Bill and the Crime and Disorder Act review, and their implications for York, be noted.

(ii) That the Executive maintains its view that the creation of a Strategic Police Authority could have adverse implications for the residents of York and that Officers be asked to continue to press the case for guarantees relating to the quality of service that might be expected in the City following any such change.

(iii) That the views of the Council be communicated to central government in writing.

(iv) That details of the Council’s position be communicated via the media and on its web site.

(v) That the Executive records its concern about the appropriateness of the LSP as a vehicle to manage the local CDRP any instructs Officers to consider and report on ways in which accountability can be maintained.

(vi) That the CDRP boundaries should remain as they currently are.

(vii) That Officers consider and report on how the Neighbourhood Pride team might make, within the existing budget limitations, a greater contribution to community safety and the new neighbourhood policing initiative.

(viii) That the enhanced role for scrutiny committees in holding the CDRP’s contributing agencies to account be noted.

(ix) That the formal broadening of the Section 17 definition (the Council’s legal obligation to consider promoting safety and reducing crime) be noted, and that Officers be asked to consider how a Safe City unit might be established within the Council as one of the responses to this legislation.

REASONS:    To ensure that the Council makes a clear and appropriate response to the government’s recommendations on police and community safety reform, which aims to safeguard the interests of the City of York and the accountability of the SYP to local residents.