Chief wants neighbourhood policing ‘ingrained in everybody’

With the issue of the first of the plan's five pillars, police chief Damian Kitchen said he was hoping that it would be possible to come up with a solution that would survive times when there was pressure on resources.

‘As I’ve seen throughout my policing career, when the public purse is tight and resourcing is tight, or you’re kind of undergoing some challenges around recruitment, what can be the easiest place to cut is neighbourhood and community policing in favour of the more responsive functions.

‘I completely get that, and sometimes that’s necessary. The importance moving forward is trying to build a model of policing where neighbourhood and community policing is ingrained in everybody.’

An operational model for neighbourhood policing was being developed, which could be a dedicated neighbourhood policing team that goes out on foot patrol in parishes, or more response-based teams each of which has responsibility for a parish.

‘The trick here is to build a resilient model so that whatever the financial or resourcing pressures that we meet in the next few years and beyond, we can really up our game and maintain a good community policing presence and good engagement with our public,’ said Mr Kitchen.

Partner agencies to be better used to respond to some calls

Not every request that is taken at the Police Station requires a police officer to attend and chief officer Damian Kitchen said he is aiming to make better use of partner agencies to respond to some calls.

The new police strategic report has effective referral as one of its core pillars, to see collaboration with other agencies to make sure that the right ones help victims.

This allies with the force’s response strategies and the aim to triage calls to ensure that reports of crime are assessed based on threat, harm and vulnerability.

‘What the survey told us really clearly is that people consider our response to calls and emergencies to be excellent,’ said Mr Kitchen.

‘This [goal] is about maintaining that excellent service but we do get a number of calls which can probably be dealt with by putting people in touch with more appropriate agencies or people to help them with the issue.

‘This is about maintaining a brilliant level of service, and it’s about getting smarter around the ability to report things online, to get advice online, to make information available to the public online and direct people to the most appropriate person that can help them.’

Chief officer keen to use special constables more

Making more use of special constables is something that police chief officer Damian Kitchen is keen to progress and already some have been recruited into specialist areas within the local force.

Guernsey Police has long made use of specials in areas such as helping at public events or in the night-time economy.

‘There’s still a place for that,’ said Mr Kitchen.

But with the changing face of crime, in particular the growing use of technology in crime, he said there was a growing need to recruit special constables with special skills.

‘A number of forces in the UK are also doing this – you identify a special constable who might have skills in technology and be able to bring something to your high-tech crime unit.

'Or you might identify a special constable who has a financial background who can come and help your financial investigations.

‘I think there’s absolutely loads of potential to rebuild the offer for specials, but also attract people from different areas of expertise across our communities.’

He thought such roles could appeal to people who have had a certain career path but at one time did consider joining the police force.

‘Are we tapping into that as much as we could be? I don’t think we are.

‘It’s an ambition of mine to augment the neighbourhood policing model with people who want to come and give some of their time to their community.’

Eight new police recruits to start training in the next few months

A successful recruitment drive will see eight new police recruits start training in the next few months, bringing to 13 the number that will have joined the force by the end of this year, said chief officer Damian Kitchen.

These will be augmented by staff being brought over from the UK. ‘As with all public sectors across the island, there will always need to be a mix of local recruitment and people transferring in, mainly from the UK,’ he said.

‘We have had a really successful campaign attracting people to transfer to Guernsey, because it’s a really beautiful place to live.

‘It’s a great environment, a great place to bring your kids up, and so on.

‘So we’ve got a number of external recruits that will be starting in the next few months, and at that point, I’m building a more resilient resource.’

The recent local recruitment campaign saw double the number of applicants than there were last year.

‘My job now is to retain those officers and keep building on that,’ said Mr Kitchen.