New policing plan aims for 'safest county'

A strategic plan, setting out how Nottinghamshire Police aims to continue to improve performance in the face of stinging financial cuts, has been developed.

Produced after exhaustive consultation with the public and numerous county-based organisations, the plan, which is produced jointly by the Police Authority and Nottinghamshire Police, identifies how the force will build on the successes achieved in the last year, focusing on both countywide and local, community-based priorities.

In the next two years alone Nottinghamshire Police intends to:

• Reduce the total numbers of crimes committed by 20,000

• Make savings of £23m to meet the reduced budget allocation

• Become one of the top 25% of all forces when assessed by public satisfaction rates.

Delivery of these targets will help the Force achieve its ambition, namely that by 2015 Nottinghamshire will be:

• The safest county in England and Wales

• The best value-for-money police force in England and Wales

• The most dependable police force in England and Wales

The plan will be published on the Authority’s and Force’s websites.

The first section sets out the forcewide aims and priorities, and is followed by eight individual local plans relating to eight individual districts.

Among the priorities identified in the plan for the coming four years are:

• Investing more money than ever before in policing local neighbourhoods

• Targeting antisocial behaviour in parts of the city and county where people are most at risk

• Increased collaboration with neighbouring police forces to provide services; and improving the feedback provided to victims.

In the last nine months (April 1 2010 - January 31 2011) crime has tumbled across Nottinghamshire to a record low with the force achieving greater reductions than any other force in England and Wales.

Specifically, it has achieved the greatest reduction nationally in criminal damage, domestic burglary, vehicle crime and serious acquisitive crime, the second biggest fall in offences of serious violence and the third biggest fall nationally in robbery and sexual offences.

The Strategic Plan sets out how the force now plans to build on these successes for the coming years.

Chief Constable Julia Hodson said: “The achievements in crime reduction made in the last 12 months have been significant. This plan will help us make those successes lasting ones.

“In the face of drastic cuts to the public purse and the need to make savings in the coming four years of more than £40m in our overall budget, our plans are very ambitious. But I firmly believe they are achievable, and we are determined to make Nottinghamshire the safest place to live, work and visit in the whole country by 2015.”

Kevin Dennis, Chief Executive of the Nottinghamshire Police Authority, said the plan represented a promise to the people of Nottinghamshire.