Public 'not getting good news on crime' - Gwent Police commissioner

12:00pm Saturday 16th February 2013 in News Photograph of the Author By Emma Mackintosh

Public 'not getting good news on crime' - Gwent Police commissioner Public 'not getting good news on crime' - Gwent Police commissioner

 DESPITE bad news stories and low public satisfaction with the police, the crime rate in Gwent is dropping, the Gwent Police and Crime Commissioner insisted yesterday.

The Gwent Police and Crime Panel met to scrutinise the draft Police and Crime Plan for 2013/17, submitted by Police and Crime Commissioner Ian Johnston, at Caerphilly council offices in Ystrad Mynach.

In his draft plan Mr Johnston pledged to "put victims at the heart of everything we do" and "work with partners to divert people from offending behaviour".

His office will undertake a review of Partnerships and Communities Together (PACT) meetings and employ 24 new police constables, while making savings over the next three years of £24 million.

The report said despite Gwent Police achieving a 39 per cent reduction in serious violent crime, and a 17 per cent drop in overall recorded crime, public satisfaction has dropped five per cent, to 53 per cent, in one year, according to the British Crime Survey published in September 2012.

Chief Constable of Gwent Police Carmel Napier told the panel: "We need to celebrate our successes, we need to talk ourselves up. When you compare Wales against regions in England there seems to be a cultural ethos to talk things down."

Gwent has the biggest reduction in crime across all 43 police force areas in England and Wales, she said, and in December prosecuted more people for domestic abuse offences than anywhere else, even places with a larger population.

Panel member, Caerphilly councillor Colin Mann said television programmes such as Crimewatch made residents think crimes may be happening around the corner from them, and the media was a "huge element" in public perception.

Mr Johnston said: "For four quarters consecutively we have had the biggest reduction in crime. I don't think we are getting many good news stories in the media."

The panel will review the draft plan and make recommendations, to which Mr Johnston will respond on his website before March 31.

Comments(8)

D Taylor says...
1:46pm Sat 16 Feb 13

Well I don't think that the Argus imagined the armed robbery at a Cwmbran shop reported at the top of this page. Despite the drop in crime figures I have the impression that more armed robberies are happening in Gwent than ever before.”

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Ian MacKinlay says...
3:01pm Sat 16 Feb 13

Stop whingeing.

There has been a clamp down on police officers exposing their tattoos.

What more do you want?

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jaggededge says...
3:08pm Sat 16 Feb 13

what about the idiots riding around harrow rd .bedford rd.etc on a motor bike no crash helmet no police around

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P C Neilson says...
5:46pm Sat 16 Feb 13

Why oh why did we allow politicians in the police. Listen to them, it's like a popularity campaign to them. The whole idea was forced on us to begin with. It's not even funny, because when they say things about tattoos and facebook, it's something that is a genuine problem to their minds.

I've had more thoughtful ****.

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Dave on his Soapbox says...
5:48pm Sat 16 Feb 13

jaggededge wrote:
what about the idiots riding around harrow rd .bedford rd.etc on a motor bike no crash helmet no police around
...probably the same underage/un-insured muppets that ride up and down St Julian Ave/Heather Rd.

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P C Neilson says...
5:49pm Sat 16 Feb 13

That last word read fartz btw.

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The Red Claw says...
10:31am Sun 17 Feb 13

The commissioner has a very valid point. Considering there is an almost constant complaint that most prisons are overcrowded, someone, somewhere, must be doing a good job. All we ever seem to get from the police in general though, are bland statistics or percentages which no one seems to believe, or politically driven ‘feel good’ stories linked to some obscure diversity issue, that in no way affects the vast majority of people on a day to day basis. The constant use of corporate and carefully scripted ‘ Plod-speak’ phrases also does very little to present the police in a more positive light, and they also seem to encounter some difficulty in effectively countering any negative publicity. The media, in any format, is an extremely powerful tool and the police, same as any other organisation should learn to exploit it to its full potential.

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Trefor says...
10:14am Mon 18 Feb 13

The fact is the crime is not falling, the way the police consider each incident is a deciding factor as to whether they record it as a `crime` or an `incident`.

For instance when a Police Support Officer attends a householder who has complained about damage, or something missing, or low level anti social behaviour, which is a real problem for the victims, that person, who is not a trained Police Constable, will decide if the incident is a ` crime` or an ` incident`, if it is recorded as an incident there has been no crime, hence the perceived drop in reported ` crimes`.

If someone enters your property, you may consider that to be a ` burglary` or an attempted ` burglary` but the PCO who attends may consider it to be ` tresspass`, and the crime you thought you were reporting becomes no more than an unrecorded ` incident`

The Street Magician, ` DYNAMOR`, has nothing on the person who thought up the above processes in order to incorrectly demonstrate that crime is falling in Britain, including Gwent.

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