New chief officer Damian Kitchen lined up with his senior team at Les Cotils as they shared their vision for policing in the island, presented the results of the recent community survey, and heard public concerns directly.
Mr Kitchen said his vision was to provide a trusted and professional community-based approach to policing that preserves the safety of the island.
‘The most important thing is hearing the community’s concerns, and I have only been here, in this role and as a resident, for five months so it was crucial for me,’ said Mr Kitchen.
‘It’s also beneficial that a range of officers have listened tonight as well.’
Road safety and vehicle offences made up the majority of concerns raised.
The safety of road users, especially cyclists and pedestrians came up most prominently, with police asked to focus on accident prevention as well as investigation.
Mr Kitchen said he expected neighbourhood officers to do more around road safety. He outlined that as far as road safety and vehicle safety was concerned, police priorities were to continue with educational campaigns to reduce the ‘fatal five’ road user behaviours – which includes drink-driving and using a mobile phone while driving – to collaborate with Traffic and Highways to support infrastructure changes to improve road safety, and target resources effectively to help prevent accidents and promote responsible road use, while taking enforcement action when necessary.
‘In any community, road safety is always an issue. Everyone is a road user, whether that be a pedestrian or a cyclist or a car driver, it’s something that affects all of us,’ he added.
The survey had just short of 1,700 responses. Most said that they were very concerned about being a victim of dangerous driving or speeding.
Other concerns included anti-social behaviour in young people – which the panel said they were aware of.
They said that when dealing with young people, a balanced approach was needed, but assured that the law was there to be used if necessary.
Fears were also expressed about violence, intimidation and abuse.
The results of the survey showed that 19.5% of female respondents had been victim of violence or intimidation in the night time economy.
The survey also showed that 53% of people were aware of how to make a complaint against the police, but only 36% people said that they were satisfied about the way their complaint was dealt with.
‘It is a priority that we make sure we are dealing with things appropriately, and professionalism with the public is continued,’ said Mr Kitchen.
The meeting was held as part of a wider stream of work to follow the PACT model – Police and Communities Together – to hold regular meetings with the community to determine how policing issues can best be tackled.
Alongside Mr Kitchen at the meeting were deputy chief officers Philip Breban and Richard Bell, three chief inspectors – Julie Palmer, Liam Johnson and Andy Hockey – Inspector Tom Marshall from the roads policing unit, and Laura Simpson, the force’s digital safety and development officer.
You need to be logged in to comment. If you had an account on our previous site, you can migrate your old account and comment profile to this site by visiting this page and entering the email address for your old account. We'll then send you an email with a link to follow to complete the process.