News from your Commissioner Jonathan Ash-Edwards

Newsletter from the Police and Crime Commissioner for Hertfordshire

To Resident

I’ve recently marked my first year in office as your Police & Crime Commissioner. It’s a huge privilege to serve the 1.2 million people who call Hertfordshire home and I’m working tirelessly do ensure we live in a safe county that is effectively policed. 

Watch a short video of my first year here

Meaningful progress has been made over the last year – with over 26,000 hours of additional high visibility police patrols through Operation Hotspot, funding in place to achieve a new record high number of police officers this year and, shortly, more PCs and PCSOs in neighbourhood policing teams and a named officer for every community.

Safer Town Centres for Hertfordshire

To build on this, starting in the coming weeks will be a concerted plan of activity both from policing and community safety partners to make our town centres safer. More patrols. More action on crime, shoplifting and anti-social behaviour. More problem solving. Hertfordshire’s town centres have lots to offer; I want to ensure people can make the most of them safely.

I want to know what you think could be done to make our town centres safer as well – look out for a survey on Herts Connected shortly or drop me an email.

A £10 fine for seven sex offences

Lots of people come into our towns on public transport. Although I don’t have any remit for policing on our rail network (which sits with British Transport Police), I take a keen interest in anything impacting the safety of Hertfordshire. 

I was horrified to discover recently that a sex offender who had committed seven indecent exposure offences at railway stations, including one in Hertfordshire, had been fined just £10 by a Magistrates Court in London, equivalent to £1.42 per offence.

Too often, victims bravely come forward to tell their story, the police do a great job to catch the offender and then the justice system just goes and lets everyone down. We need a more serious approach in our country to sentencing of sex offences. But no one can even challenge this sentence as the Unduly Lenient Sentences Scheme doesn’t apply to cases in Magistrate’s Courts. I’ve written to the Justice Secretary & Attorney General calling for this scheme to be extended to all sex offences cases regardless of which Court hears them.

Finally, this month I wanted to highlight the great work done by Hertfordshire’s police officers and staff to: dismantle a cannabis factory, solve a series of robberies, get a conviction following a shooting last year, ban a prolific shoplifter from a town centre and complete a week of action to tackle knife crime.

I also recently joined a police operation to crack down on stolen tools and counterfeit goods at a car boot sale in the county. This newsletter is designed to keep you up to date with my work on your behalf and I hope you find it informative. Should you ever wish to contact me please email commissioner@herts-pcc.gov.uk

Best wishes

Jonathan Ash-Edwards 
Police & Crime Commissioner for Hertfordshire

New Police & Crime Plan launched by PCC to make Hertfordshire safer

I’ve launched my Police & Crime Plan, Fighting Crime, Making Hertfordshire Safer, to outlines the strategic objectives for policing, community safety, and crime prevention. It provides a clear focus for my first term in office and for Hertfordshire Constabulary to reduce crime, catch criminals, and keep people safe. 

The five key priorities are based on extensive feedback from public consultation:

Read more from me and the Chief Constable and see the full Plan here 

Op Hotspot reduces antisocial behaviour and serious violence by over 14%

behaviour, crime and violence by over 14%

It’s a year since I launched Operation Hotspot – a plan to put more police patrols into 26 hotspots where crime and anti-social behaviour are higher than the Hertfordshire average.

Hopefully you’ve seen some of the 26,000 hours of additional patrols which have been happening, especially in our town centres.

The end of year data tells us the plan has made a difference. More police visibility and activity in the places where crime happens more frequently helps to reduce crime – it’s common sense, not rocket science. 

Crime, violence and anti-social behaviour in the identified hotspots has fallen by 14.5% over the last year thanks to those 26,000 hours of patrols with over 300 arrests being made by police officers on a hotspot patrol.

Find out more about the impact Op Hotspot has been having here

Government spending review sidelines policing and the fight against crime – with local taxpayers left to pick up the bill

I’ve been through the details of last week’s Government spending review to figure out what it means for policing and community safety in Hertfordshire. It’s not great news.

The spending review increases police ‘spending power’ by 1.7% - far short of what Police Chiefs have said is needed. But the Treasury small print shows the vast majority of this will come from an assumed increase in the council tax precept set by Police & Crime Commissioners, with little new money from the Home Office. It’s hugely disappointing that the fight against crime has been sidelined as a national priority and the buck passed to local taxpayers.

I’ll consult local residents later in the year on the options available to us in Hertfordshire once we have more detailed information. The Chief Constable and I will continue to work tirelessly to deliver on the public’s priorities, but our work has been made harder by the Chancellor’s actions.

Read more of the Commissioner’s reaction to the spending review here

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I will be holding another public Accountability and Performance Meeting with Chief Constable Andy Prophet at 10.30am on Tuesday July 8th.

You can register to watch live using this link. 

Recordings of the meeting and all previous ones are available to watch back here.

Thank you for reading.