Police & Crime Commissioners work together to reduce crime

Cambridgeshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Sir Graham Bright, has highlighted the importance of early prevention work in communities and effective joint working across organisations to reduce offending.

Sir Graham was speaking at a conference jointly hosted with the three Police and Crime Commissioners for Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Hertfordshire.

During the day, attendees from key organisations in the criminal justice system across the four counties discussed how to prevent people from offending in the first instance and prevent reoffending.

Speaking at the conference, Sir Graham said, “By looking across the four counties we have the opportunity to learn from each other, to look at a bigger picture of how the system could work better and to have a louder voice in unblocking national barriers that get in the way.

“We can expect deeper reductions in budgets across all services and we need to work together to reduce demand.  We believe we can, and should, be bold in our thinking. Together we have a lot to offer.”

Neil Moloney CEO of BeNCH Community Rehabilitation Company, said “Prisoners who serve short sentences have often been vulnerable to reoffending.  Following a change in legislation we are now working hard to support this group to ensure crime reduces even further in our local communities”.

Through the Commissioners’ new ‘BeNCH’ Reducing Offending Board the four Commissioners will continue to drive work designed to reduce offending.

Ends

Notes to editors:

In 2014 the Government’s Transforming Rehabilitation policy was introduced. The Police and Crime Commissioners of Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire have a shared ambition to transform the approach to offending in their areas, and have come together as the ‘BeNCH’ partnership to achieve this.

BeNCH Community Rehabilitation Company manages low to medium risk offenders subject to Community Orders or Licence following release from prison.  The caseload is over 6500 at any one time and spread across Beds, Northants, Cambs and Herts.

Further information can be found http://benchcrc.org.uk/ or contacting Doug Hook, C ommunications Manager on 01438 747074