Katy Bourne to quiz Sussex Police Chief Constable
Reports of antisocial behaviour have risen by 7% in a year.
Sussex Police saw 1,623 more crimes reported between September 2016 and August 2017 than there were in the same period the previous year.
On Friday, Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner, Katy Bourne, will attend a meeting where she will quiz Sussex Police Chief Constable Giles York.
She will ask Giles York how the changes to the force’s neighbourhood policing teams have affected its ability to tackle crime after receiving a number of concerns about antisocial behaviour from residents and businesses.
Katy Bourne will also ask the Chief Constable how Sussex Police is dealing with the 11% increase in the total of reported crimes – and how it is ensuring that people phoning the 101 number will not be kept waiting for long.
In the last year to 24th August, 75% of 101 calls were answered in 4 minutes, with an average waiting time of 3 minutes and 13 seconds for all non-emergency calls. Almost 90% of calls to 999 were answered within 10 seconds.
The meeting comes at the end of a week when Giles York has been criticised for his comments about visiting victims. In an interview with the Mail on Sunday in which the Chief Constable commented that there was no point in overstretched officers visiting many victims of crime and it would be an “awful lot more convenient” for police to communicate with the public online or by phone.
The Chief Constable also defended response times for the 101 number, insisting that a seven-minute wait for calls to be answered ‘isn’t long’.
The meeting is being broadcast live on Friday at 1pm. To watch, go to http://sussex-pcc.public-i.tv/core/portal/home
By Clare Calder
