PFCC Roger Hirst Weekly Update – Precept Proposals and Funding for Police and Fire and Rescue

Hello, I’m Roger Hirst, your Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner. It’s that budget time of year again, and I’m here to talk about our proposals for council tax precept and funding for police and fire and rescue for this year.

Like you, I know strong emergency services are absolutely key to having the safe and secure communities we all need. Over the last four years we’ve worked really hard to recruit more police officers, and ensure that both police and fire and rescue are delivering a good service for you.

So in the last few years we’ve already recruited another 500 officers and now our proposal for next year is an additional 184 on top of that for the coming year. That will mean that since 2016, we have actually expanded by over 700 officers here in Essex. The focus next year will be on tackling gangs and serious violence and organised crime, and having a new proactive domestic abuse team to deal with repeat perpetrators as well as providing better support for victims. We’ll also now have a new district disruption team to solve local problems and target repeat criminal behaviour in districts across Essex.

So we know regularly from you that you want to see investment in policing, but I also know it’s a really tough year financially and that people are finding it very difficult in the current pandemic. Particularly those that have lost their jobs, or are on furlough or in other difficulty. So, while we need to increase the police precept to continue to deliver those services you need, we have kept it much lower than the maximum allowed, be that a £10 increase on the average property over the year, so less than 20p a week.

And there will be no increase in the precept for the fire and rescue service at all. Fire and rescue will be able to fund their development, the investment we need to see in fire protection work around buildings as well as improving training again, and recruiting and retaining our on call firefighters. All of that they can do out of their existing reserves.

So I’m really pleased that the investments we’ve made over the last few years are working. We’ve already strengthened our response to serious violence, we have transformed our community policing teams. We’ve introduced town centre teams, a rural crime team and a business crime team. And we are shifting the focus of policing in the county, very much from managing demand to preventing crime. All of that I think is good, it’s resulted in significant reductions in burglary and theft and anti-social behaviour. And there are early signs that we are successfully fighting back against the scourge of violent crime in our communities.

As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic in the next few months, I think it’s even more vital we have support from our emergency services for our communities, and this investment I think will make sure that we’re in a position to build back with the safe space and secure communities that we know we need to flourish and prosper.

Thank you all very much for your support, and I wish you well.

Thank you, good bye.