15 March 2023

1. Work with Residents, Communities and Businesses to Prevent Crime and Anti-Social

 

The Force is dedicated to working with communities and local businesses to prevent crime and anti-social behaviour (ASB). Responding to the needs of local residents and communities, carrying out quality investigations, apprehending wanted persons and ensuring offenders are brought to justice are just a few of the measures of success.  

 

Engagement remains a fundamental part of neighbourhood policing. Ward officers, youth engagement officers and community liaison officers lead on the engagement functions of the Community Safety Units (CSU) on behalf of the districts; there is at least one community liaison officer in each district. All districts actively use social media to engage with the public and attend partnership meetings with the local authorities. In addition to face-to-face engagement and use of traditional social media, Kent Police have launched a two-way engagement tool for residents, businesses and community groups in Kent and Medway called ‘My Community Voice’ (MCV) with over 9,500 members now signed up to the initiative. This enables Kent Police to update users with news, alerts, appeals, engagement events and general policing activities and allows the public to comment on these alerts and provide vital community intelligence within a private and importantly secure two-way interaction with Kent Police.

 

Increasing sign-up activity has been generated with the objective of achieving 10% of Kent households being enrolled in the engagement tool. In the third week of January, 550 members of the public signed up, compared to 256 the week before and 70 during the first week of January 2023. The number of alerts sent out in January also increased significantly. To increase those community members and businesses to sign up, Corporate Communications launched a Facebook and Google Ads media campaign last week. Currently, the force is exploring the feasibility of adding the MCV QR code to the existing Victim Care Cards which are given to victims of crimes when they are most interested in engaging with the police.

 

SPOCS for MCV have been requested from each Community Safety Unit (CSU) to ensure a consistent level of quality messaging. They also serve as the primary source of support and guidance for their colleagues. Once the force has sufficient members signed up and a consistent level of quality from the existing SPOCS, this will be rolled out across all LPT teams.  The latest promotional material has recently been rolled out across the organisation, and all CSUs and the Diversity & Inclusion team have been handing out leaflets and placing posters in prominent locations.  During the last week of January, the internal SharePoint page was updated with simple instructions for users too and as part of our efforts to increase staff knowledge and understanding, we have also conducted internal virtual training sessions via Microsoft Teams.

 

3.1 Victim Based Crime

	Recorded Crime	Last year	% Change	Number change
November 2022	12706	13731	-7.5%	-1025
December 2022	11780	12388	-4.9%	-608
January 2023	10917	12241	-10.8%	-1324
3 Month total	35403	38360	-7.7%	-2957

 

Victim based crime (VBC) has experienced a decrease of 7.7%, with 2957 less victims between November 22 and January 2023 compared to the same period last year. With reductions seen in all three months in this period, the most notable was January 2023 with 1324 less crimes than January 2022.

 

The VBC solved rate for the three month period was 9.8%, this is an increase of 1.7 percentage points from the 8.1% compared to last year, with increases seen in the volumes of charges (+443) being administered.

3.2 Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB)

 

The Force is committed to tackling ASB and results in the past have demonstrated that the action taken was successful. Responding to the needs of local communities, carrying out quality investigations, apprehending wanted persons and ensuring offenders are brought to justice are just a few of the measures of success.

 

 

 

 

 

 

	Recorded Incidents	Last year	% Change	Number change
November 2022	1760	1959	-10.2%	-199
December 2022	1626	1984	-18.0%	-358
January 2023	1784	1991	-10.4%	-207
3 Month total	5170	5934	-12.9%	-764

 

Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) continues to decrease; this period has seen an overall decrease of -12.9%, with 764 less incidents, following a small increase in the summer months with school holidays and the hotter weather. Decreases have been seen in all three months, the most notable being in December with 358 less incidents compared to December 2021.

 

For the three-month period, the following ASB call types saw the largest reductions:

 

• Drunken or Rowdy behaviour reduced by 19.3% (-267 incidents) compared to same period last year.
• Neighbour Disputes/nuisance reduced by 31.4% (-314 incidents) compared to same period last year.

 

Of note, Motor Vehicle nuisance on road incidents saw an increase of 13.8% with 749 incidents for the three month period, this is up by 91 incidents from the same period last year.