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APCC Chair yesterday opened the APCC & NPCC Partnership Summit 2024.

Global risks and local responses – positive policing for the future

Good morning and a very warm welcome to the APCC NPCC Summit.

I am very proud to be opening this event alongside the NPCC Chair Gavin Stephens after taking over as Chair of the APCC in September.

I took up that position after two of the most incredibly difficult months for the region I serve.

On 29 July, Southport and the wider Merseyside region was rocked by the devastating knife attack which saw three young girls – Elsie, Alice and Bebe – lose their lives.

Three beautiful little girls, dancing, smiling and having fun, right where they belonged, with their friends. Until unspeakable horror unfolded.

In the days that followed, we saw their tragic deaths being used to fuel division and hatred. We saw misinformation and lies being peddled and, as a result, we saw utterly appalling scenes of disorder on our streets.

That racism and violence which spread online and across the country instilled fear and division within communities and presented huge challenges for policing.

The police response was swift decisive, and brave.

I want to pay tribute to the thousands of officers who risked their own safety, many suffering injuries and trauma, to protect people and property.

In Merseyside, officers who had run towards danger on the day of the stabbing, dealing with the most unspeakable scenes of suffering, were back on shift the next day facing bricks and bottles.

They were supported by a huge number of police staff who gave up their rest days to ensure the right response for our communities.

I was incredibly proud of the way communities came together in defiance of those who sought to divide them. Cleaning up the streets, repairing damage to the local mosque, checking in with neighbours and offering support to local officers.

It is important we reflect on how we can address the underlying causes of this disorder. How we can target the dangerous and malicious individuals directing and coordinating activity on and offline to incite hatred and violence. How we can prevent those scenes ever playing out on our streets again?

In common with the themes of our conference, we need to acknowledge the increasing impact that bad actors, false claims, misogyny, racism, disinformation and inflammatory language have in radicalising vulnerable people and provoking violence and disorder in our communities.

It is not just faceless individuals or covert state forces that are responsible. Dangerous rhetoric from high profile figures of all kinds helps to fuel and can falsely legitimise violence.

This is a serious problem and one we need to urgently address as a society. As police leaders we have a responsibility to call out irresponsible behaviour, inflammatory language and lies circulated on social media. We have seen just how easily that can lead to widespread criminality.

The theme of our Summit – Global risks and local responses – positive policing for the future – is such a vital topic, because we’re all committed to making policing not just better today but for the future. 

It’s important to acknowledge that progress is being made, but at times it is variable and too slow. Working together, we must demonstrate a commitment to increasing the pace of change across the sector, driving improvement so that we can deliver a better service to the public.

The new government has arrived with an ambitious agenda for reform. An ambition that is shared by policing leaders, an ambition to think differently and to challenge the status quo.

We will talk a lot over the next two days about change – and where and how we can make the biggest impact.

Uniquely, PCCs respond to local issues and community concerns on crime and policing. It is telling that some of the most impactful innovations have started locally, before being rolled out nationally. Operation Pegasus addressing retail crime and Operation Soteria, tackling rape and serious sexual assault, as well as hotspot policing addressing serious violence and anti-social behaviour, to name just a few.

Proposals for reform need to recognise that a one-size-fits-all approach will rarely be the right solution but, scaling up approaches that demonstrably work is in all of our interests.

As PCCs we are committed and ready to work together with our policing partners to achieve purposeful change that will make a real and lasting difference to policing and criminal justice outcomes, and improve the public’s experience of policing. 

Building trust and confidence is key.

As PCC for Merseyside, I know the legacy of distrust that persists 34 years on from the Hillsborough tragedy.

The Right Reverend James Jones, former Bishop of Liverpool, who chaired the Hillsborough Independent Panel, set out very clearly in his landmark report how the bereaved families’ lasting pain and suffering was only compounded by the persistent lies and cover up that followed.

The Government has committed to introducing a new Hillsborough Law to Parliament by the Spring.

We wait to see the details in the Bill, but we support a duty of candour in policing and the wider public sector and we are ready to work with the NPCC and the government to explore how a new legal duty of candour on public services can improve and increase public trust and confidence.

A change in the law will only go so far. Building trust and confidence must start from within – ensuring the right culture in all police forces and improving the response to victims.

Important steps have been taken.

Police vetting has been improved, and the historical data wash is set to become a continuous process. 

A new Crimestoppers service for the public to anonymously report police corruption and abuse is live.

The Police Race Action Plan was developed.

A new tackling Violence against women and girls framework to give women confidence to report.

And the College of Policing’s new Code of Ethics has been produced.

But there is much more to be done.

More to ensure that when a person calls the police, they answer. And when someone is in need, the police arrive. Every time.

More to protect women and girls from violence. To ensure that they are safe – and feel safe – in their homes and on our streets.

More to improve the relationship with black communities, so they don’t feel over policed.

And we need a justice system that works for victims – where they feel believed and supported.

We must ensure that the Victims Code of Practice reflects those needs – and that partners and agencies are delivering against it.

Not just to the letter, but providing a quality service for victims, to build their confidence in what can be a frightening and confusing system, and when they are often at their most vulnerable.  

And we have to move away from an over-reliance on custodial sentences for non-violent offences.

Our prisons are at capacity. We know that short sentences too often create a revolving door of crime, with people cycling in and out of custody rather than tackling the root causes of their offending.

As well as addressing capacity in the prison estate, we need to make the case for better use of community sentences that challenge offenders to turn their lives around, as well as out-of-court resolutions, and of restorative justice when victims want that too.

PCCs are instrumental to addressing these challenges. Our unique capacity to convene partners, within and outside of policing and criminal justice – health, education and business – enables us to identify potential problems at an early stage and act to help tackle the underlying causes of some of society’s biggest challenges.  

PCCs are the voice of the public in policing. Our role is key to delivering on public and Government policing priorities – prevention and rehabilitation, combatting violence against women and girls, tackling drug-related crime, ending the tragedy of knife crime, ridding our communities of the scourge of anti-social behaviour, and better supporting the victims of crime.  

PCCs are also critical to delivering on the devolution and localism agenda. By advocating for local communities, delivering on what they want through local police and crime plans and holding Chief Constables to account on their delivery, PCCs provide critical oversight and represent the views of the people they serve.

The success of many of the projects delivered by PCCs is testimony to what local insight and devolved powers can achieve.

But their continued success is dependent on sustainable and equitable funding that matches our ambitions and enables longer-term decision-making.

This is true across policing.

We welcome the government’s commitment to increased community policing, but we also know crime is increasingly global, technologically enabled and rapidly evolving. We need to be ready and equipped to tackle these new and burgeoning threats and we need to improve forces’ capabilities in forensics and cyber and harness the benefits that new technology affords us in combatting crime of all kinds.

Above all, we need to work together.

We accept that the challenges are great and ever-changing.

But together we can meet future needs and public expectations by seizing the opportunity the government’s focus on policing and criminal justice system reform provides.

While we have differing roles, and may sometimes disagree, we are all committed to the same goal – safer, stronger communities.

For the sake of families, like those of Elsie, Bebe and Alice’s – and for all victims and communities.