Commissioner Reflects on Two Years in Office

I am very proud to serve as Police and Crime Commissioner for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. The time has flown, and it is quite remarkable that I find myself entering my third year. Everybody stepping into this job has big ideas about how they could make a difference. With my professional background in policing, I’m no different. But I owe many of the successes and improvements over the past two years to you, our communities in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Your interest and views have been instrumental in helping me shape the future services you receive. I’m very fortunate that there have been many such achievements over the past two years, and I really value the support you have given me to build our policing service in the way you want. This includes a record number of officers keeping our streets and communities safe and delivering the front line policing presence you have asked for.  

Since the launch of my Police and Crime Plan and my five key themes for tackling crime and keeping communities safe, progress has been rapid. However, there is still much to do and we will not be taking our foot off the pedal over the next 12 months in an effort to retain our position as an innovative and top-performing force.  

Here are some of the key highlights over the past 24 months:

Putting Communities First

• My team and our partners successfully secured £634,285k from Round 4 of the Home Office’s Safer Streets Fund to tackle anti-social behaviour and Violence Against Women And Girls (VAWG). Delivery is well underway, and key achievements include the training of more than 200 professionals from different organisations on how to utilise new powers and legislation to tackle anti-social behaviour problems, two dedicated Anti-Social Behaviour Officers within Peterborough City Council and Fenland District Council, new Ring Door Bell installations for residents and scores of schools signing up to training to challenge predatory behaviour.
• My £730k investment into our six county Community Safety Partnerships is delivering a stronger response to issues of local concern including initiatives to tackle anti-social behaviour and fly-tipping. Some of the funding has paid for Problem-Solving Coordinators for three years to work with partners and communities to resolve persistent problems and this work is already having a positive impact in addressing street drinking and other anti-social behaviour.

Crime Prevention

• Over the past 12 months alone, my Youth Fund has supported no fewer than 35 projects, across our county, worth a total of £98,203.78. Supported schemes include a new youth club for marginalised young people in Peterborough and funding for Ormiston Families to support young people who have a family member who has been imprisoned.
• A new Serious Violence Duty has come into force placing a legal responsibility on public sector organisations to work together to tackle the root causes of serious violence and prevent unnecessary deaths. Already, we’ve hit the ground running and I hosted a partnership workshop bringing together the strategic leads from a variety of organisations to discuss our new responsibilities, create joint plans, identify gaps in provision and hear evidence about what is working elsewhere.

Supporting Victims and Witnesses

• More than £785K has been awarded to Cambridge & Peterborough Rape Crisis Partnership (CAPRCP) over the past two years to expand support services for victims of sexual violence. This includes funding for trauma informed therapeutic support to male survivors of rape, an additional Children and Young Person’s Independent Sexual Violence Advocate (CHISVA), the development of a LiveChat service and the translation of key documents into six different languages.
• Cambridgeshire now has the highest-ever number of specialist posts dedicated to supporting survivors of domestic abuse, rape and sexual violence. An extra £526k has come into the county in 2022/23 alone.

Ethical Policing

• Extra investment through the council tax precept in 2022/23 has boosted the force’s Professional Standards Department (PSD) by 30 per cent. The force has recruited experienced analysts and researchers to help identify officers falling short of the standards expected of them and ultimately deliver a better quality of service to the public.
• A new cohort of volunteers have joined my Community Scrutiny Panel to help me provide oversight of the way in which police officers carry out stop and search and apply use of force. In the wake of the Casey Report, which independently reviewed standards of behaviour and the internal culture of the Metropolitan Police Service following the murder of Sarah Everard, scrutiny of police work by the community is a key tool in rebuilding trust in frontline operations.  

Robust Enforcement

• County lines remains a sharp area of focus for the force. Operation Hypernova – carried out with support from the Metropolitan Police, British Transport Police and the Eastern Regional Specialist Operation Unit – resulted in 44 arrests, 31 people charged, 139 drug charges, the dismantling of 33 drug lines, and the seizure of drugs to the value of £600k along with hundreds of thousands of pounds in cash and assets including vehicles, jewellery and clothing. Several weapons were also seized.