On Wednesday 12th November, Police and Crime Commissioner Paddy Tipping, visited the University to give a lecture entitled, ‘What next for Police and Crime Commissioners?’ Impact News caught up with Paddy before his lecture to discuss his role, crime and safety in students’ lives.
What do you do as a Police and Crime Commissioner, and specifically what do you do for students?
As PCC, I have three main tasks. First, I set the budget for the police, which is about two hundred million pounds a year in Nottinghamshire but there is a lot of consultation involved. Secondly, I write what is called a Police and Crime Plan which sets out the priorities for the police not just over the next twelve months but over a three to five year period and again we spend a lot of time chatting to people about that and including students through unions from both universities in the discussion. And thirdly, I have the right to hire and fire the chief constable and the chief constable isn’t totally happy about that at the moment in that I’ve just extended his contract because he’s very good, but because of the economic climate I haven’t given him a pay rise.
Students are very important in Nottinghamshire both here and at Trent as there are sixty thousand students here. They are a big source of income in the area and a big source of talent and of course they make use of the facilities. So I’ve done a number of things with students in particular with the students union here.
Students are very important in Nottinghamshire both here and at Trent as there are sixty thousand students here
We do quite a lot with students in the early weeks of the new academic year around keeping their accommodation safe and secure. And I’m doing some work with the Students Union and the health centre here around drinking and I’m in favour of having a drink, we’ve got a great nightlife in Nottingham but I think you need to do it in a responsible kind of way and the notion of coming to university and in the first week seeing the norm is getting pissed out of your head every night I don’t think is a sensible way forward.
Could you summarise your lecture for us?
What I’m going to say is that Nottinghamshire police have gotten better at catching criminals but actually we’re not clear who the customers of our service are. Typically Nottinghamshire police have gotten better at catching criminals but I think our real customers are victims and if you’re a victim of burglary in Nottingham for example and you go to the court in Nottingham six out of ten cases aren’t heard on their appointed day.
I just think if you went to the QMC for an operation and 60 percent of operations were cancelled a balloon would go up and I think if you are a victim of a serious sexual assault, like rape, it takes two years from the offence taking place to coming to court then that’s not good for the victim, it’s not good for the perpetrator and it doesn’t give confidence to the criminal justice system so putting victims first I think really is important and alongside that I’m keen to move from chasing after criminals and preventing crime to trying to help us design crime out of the system.
We’ve done a lot of work with other partners around an alcohol policy from the pricing of alcohol, to enforcement of licensing, through to treatment when you get into trouble.
I just think if you went to the QMC for an operation and 60 percent of operations were cancelled a balloon would go up
We just started a scheme in the city where a police officer drives accompanied by a mental health nurse so that if people have got mental health problems they’re not getting locked up and put into custody but getting into treatment and care so those kind of things are important and working in neighbourhoods with others to try and prevent crime is important.
Do you think the Safer Taxi Scheme has been a success? And how has the CCTV in taxis initiative gone? Do you have any plans to expand?
We’ve got money at the moment that we haven’t spent so the take up from taxis has been pretty low and I’ve been meeting the Hackney Carriage Association in Nottingham and the City Council, who are the licensing body for taxis, to say I’d like to see a greater take up.
Students can help by saying we’re only going to go in Hackney cabs that show the safer cab sign with CCTV in
We’re not at our target yet of a hundred cabs with CCTV. We’re going to re-launch the scheme shortly. Students can help by saying we’re only going to go in Hackney cabs that show the safer cab sign with CCTV in. If we can show that a hundred cabs have been successful then I think we can move the scheme on. I think if Hackney owners are saying actually I’m getting more trade in this other people will come in behind them.
How safe do you think the city streets are for students?
I’m doing two bits of work, first of all as part of the licensing of a premises the City Council are now insisting that bouncers are properly trained. We’ve got to make sure premises behave in a better, more sensible way.
I think it will make quite a lot of difference. It’s an experiment
The other thing that we are doing just now is, together with DrinkAware, some work around not having the notion of a bouncer but having a host inside the premises who will walk around and talk to people because what I think happens in pubs is people have a bit too much to drink and they do things that they wouldn’t do if they hadn’t been drinking.
We’re about to launch the scheme, I think it will make quite a lot of difference. It’s an experiment, it’s not been done anywhere else in the country, and alongside that we’re doing a scheme with about forty licensed premises who will make sure that people do a breath test before they go in so that people who have had too much to drink aren’t given admission. And we’re going to try and use some these messages in a sharp advert at the cinemas and run alongside that some texting and emailing as that is a way to talk to students.
What is your opinion regarding the recent scandal into the role of PCCs in areas of historic child abuse?
We have a big inquiry going on here in Nottinghamshire called Operation Daybreak, it is clear that abuse has been occurring in children’s homes in Nottinghamshire for perhaps up to fifty years. It only came to the fore three or four years ago. More and more people are complaining so the inquiry has been extended.
You will know that there was a big trouble in Rotherham and an independent review was done there and the police have been through all the ailments of the review in Rotherham to try and learn the lessons and to try and ensure that it’s not happening here. One of the issues around the Rotherham incident was the prevalence of taxi drivers and we’ve been, again we talked about the CCTV cameras, but we’ve looked particularly hard at crime associated with taxi drivers.
I take it really seriously, the number of officers dealing with what is called public protection issues has just been increased by thirty
And there has been some successes. There was an episode of child grooming in the Forest Fields area of Nottingham, again an area where students live, people became aware of it. The young women involved were reluctant to make complaints because the men involved were seen as boyfriends, lovers rather than abusers which they were and because the girls weren’t prepared to give evidence the police intervened and took possession of their mobile phones and of the laptops and by using that equipment they could find out what was going on. And that was seen as a kind of national first.
I take it really seriously, the number of officers dealing with what is called public protection issues has just been increased by thirty. We’re going to put another thirty in that unit over the next twelve to eighteen months so I think we’re on top of it.
Do you think that the late night levy has gone well considering that there have been reports of pubs and clubs deciding to close early to avoid it?
I think that some pubs and clubs will close early but I think the vast majority of pubs and clubs in the city will stay open, I don’t have any doubt about it. One of the things we’ve done is we’ve said to pubs and clubs who are part of the Business Improvement District (BID) in Nottingham. you won’t have to pay the levy. Again, we’re not being punitive we’re trying to use carrots as well as sticks.
I don’t like the antipathy that exists, that has existed for many years, between the Black community and the Afro-Caribbean community
Perhaps I ought to say a word about stop and search. There is a big Black and Asian community here at the University. When I came into post, if you were a Black or Afro-Caribbean young man you were sixteen times more likely to be stopped and searched than a white youngster of the same age, that disproportionality has fallen very significantly.
Still we’re not there yet, it’s about two to one now. We’re going to introduce mobile video cameras on officers’ uniforms as well as mobile tracking in the future so that when they stop and search people we’ve got a record of it but we’ll also know if officers are treating people with respect. And it’s a big priority for me. I don’t like the antipathy that exists, that has existed for many years, between the Black community and the Afro-Caribbean community. Particularly in Nottingham, as the police would say we’re on the case.
Do you have any upcoming plans or policies for students?
I’m always interested to hear new ideas of what we should be doing and what we can do. I guess all I’d say is the police can tackle crime but actually it is by working together that we can reduce crime. I think we’ve all got a responsibility ourselves to try and reduce crime.
Police were round Lenton the other night just knocking on the doors of students.
Simple things, there is a campaign running at the moment which students might want to think about, if you go out in the dark the chances of being burgled if you leave the light on are fifty percent reduced.
Police were round Lenton the other night just knocking on the doors of students. They were amazed at the number of windows that were open, the number of doors that were open. Just simple precautions like that can help us stop crime.
Hannah Eves
Image: Nottingham Politics via Twitter
