South Wales Police and Authority has today launched its Policing Plan for 2010-2015.
This five year plan, unveiled by Chief Constable Peter Vaughan and Police Authority Chair Councillor Russell Roberts, sets out our policing priorities for the next five years and details how, together with our partners, we aim to deliver these priorities.
The Policing Plan 2010- 2015 has been developed based on the feedback our communities have given us, be it through Police Authority representatives, participation in consultation forums force-wide, at PACT meeting or in surgeries with our Neighbourhood Policing Teams.
As an Authority and a police service, we have made significant improvements in many areas over recent years, with 2009-10 seeing around 1,000 fewer victims of crime a month, that’s 30 fewer victims every day! We are proud of these results and will continue with our work to drive down crime and keep South Wales safe.
Equally as important to us is the perception our communities have of our police service and the way that we treat individuals. Recent research tells us that our communities’ are feeling more confident in us and in the service we provide, but we know we have more work to do in this area.
Consulting with our communities and our partners has been a key element in setting the priorities for 2010-15 and in preparing the Policing Plan. Since April, we have been consulting with community members about the style of our plan and the language we have used. The Policing Plan 2010-15 is the document by which our communities can hold us to account and it is important to us that they have a say in every aspect of it.
Residents of South Wales were invited by the Chief Constable via Real Radio to fill in an online survey at their convenience and researchers visited supermarkets and carried out face-to-face interviews with randomly selected members of the public.
From the research conducted, our communities key priorities for policing during 2010-15 are that we…
- respond to and tackle anti social behaviour
- are visible, accessible and fair
- tackle substance and alcohol misuse
- ensure value for money.
In publishing the five year plan , Chief Constable Peter Vaughan said:
“On taking up my post as Chief Constable earlier this year, I made a commitment to develop a better police service for all of our communities. In doing this, I agreed with the South Wales Police Authority that we would publish a five year plan that would enable us to become the best at understanding and responding to our communities’ needs.
“During the consultation process, we wanted to ensure that as many members of the public as possible were given the opportunity to have their say in our plan. It is only by listening carefully to the needs of our communities and working closely with our partner agencies that we will continue to improve our service.”
Chair of the Police Authority, Councillor Russell Roberts, said: “The launch of this plan sets out what we want to achieve as a police service over the next five years. As an Authority, we will be constantly monitoring this, to make sure that the priorities continue to reflect those of our communities.
“The next five years will undoubtedly see changes to the police service, as a result of financial constraints and the Coalition Government’s proposals for changing the structure of policing. We will work closely with the Chief Constable and all our officers to maintain, and improve on, the good performance we have seen in the last 12 months, and ensure any changes will not affect the service we provide to our communities.”
