Additional funding welcomed

Last week, the Police Service welcomed £245 million of additional funding from HM Government and the Northern Ireland Executive.

The additional finance will ensure that we have the ability to deliver a personal, professional and protective service, while at the same time, enhance our ability to tackle the terrorist threat, keeping our communities, officers and staff safe.

However, this funding must also be considered in the context of the required efficiency savings of £135 million over the next four years.

Every Police Service across the United Kingdom faces its own individual challenges. While we share many common challenges, the Police Service of Northern Ireland is unique because we are the only Service operating under a severe terrorist threat on a daily basis.

Despite this unique situation, we are consistently delivering against the targets set for us by the Northern Ireland Policing Board.

Recent achievements include:

• An incease of 5.2% in the confidence figure for effectiveness of the Criminal Justice System
• A 5.9% reduction in non domestic violence with injury complaints
• 148 less people killed or seriously injured in road traffic collisions
• A 12% increase in the detection rates for sectarian crime
• A 4.2% reduction in reports of anti social behaviour
• A 10% reduction in the number of non domestic burglaries
• 32 crime gangs frustrated, 56 disrupted and 31 dismantled
• An additional 594 police officers redeployed to neighbourhood and response policing (against a target of 600)

We have achieved a great deal, but are not complacent and have more work to do to achieve all our targets.

Our performance this year is improving across almost all areas. We are moving in absolutely the right direction, regarding the number of cash seizures and confiscation orders, domestic violence with injury crimes, detection rate for robberies, detection rates for homophobic crimes and the detection rate for serious sexual crime.

We have never used the terrorist threat as an excuse for under-performing and never will. We will continue to use our available resources to ensure that the appropriate additional protection will be provided for all officers and staff.

Despite the unique challenges, I believe there is always room for improvement. Many of the achievements are very commendable and your assistance is helping us to meet these targets and improve our performance is very welcome.

Now that we have certainty regarding our budget going forward into the next four years, I assure you we will do everything possible to deliver the very best Police Service we can.

I hope you continue to give us your support in doing so.

Getting engaged

If you're reading this blog, there’s a good chance that you might have picked up the link on one the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s seven Facebook sites and three twitter feeds.

Over the past 12 months we have introduced an overall corporate Facebook and a series of local pages for Holywood, Bangor, Ards, Ballymena, Brownlow (Craigavon) and Fermanagh.

Whether we like it or not Social Media has become an almost essential part of everyday life for many people with an estimated 600 million users worldwide.

Communication is one of the key priorities for any police service and it is important that we make full use of every available opportunity to engage with the public we serve.

Being a regular follower of our Facebook pages I have been very encouraged by the number of followers and the very constructive conversations and comments which have developed across this medium. You may even recall my mention in an earlier blog of the stolen property recovered as a result of information posted on the Holywood site last year – a first we understand for UK policing.

It is always important to review any initiative to establish how effective it is. We recently commissioned a multi channel survey of the effectiveness of one of our first local pilots, Holywood, which currently has 3000 followers, about 20% of the town’s population.

One thousand surveys were posted to local households throughout the Holywood area of North Down; face to face consultation with people in Holywood was undertaken by District Policing Partnership members; survey information was collected from local residents, businesses and parents of primary school pupils; the views of 281 Year 13 and Year 14 pupils were sought in two local colleges; an online survey was created and placed on our Holywood Facebook page (Our first online survey of this nature).

The surveys were carried out in November and December 2010 and resulted in 695 completed questionnaires being received.

Notable results indicated that seven out of ten of the survey respondents (71%) used Facebook and just over half (53%) of all respondents had accessed the PSNI Holywood Facebook, validating our decision to use the service.

You can access the full findings of the survey by following the attached link: http://on.fb.me/hAunQt

Interestingly, the survey itself has apparently had a knock on effect, generating even more awareness of the page, which in turn appears to have contributed another increase in the numbers of those following the page.

It is of course important to recognise that the use of Facebook, Twitter and other social media opportunities will supplement conventional ways of providing information and accessibility to the public, for example, by having police officers available and visible in the heart of our towns and communities.

If you live in one of our pilot areas then why not become, if you are not already, a follower. You’ll be amazed at the local information and engagement opportunities it provides.