Experts to help police
A team of experts has been assigned to work with Nottinghamshire Police to help it improve its performance.
The five-strong team is drawn from an external police force, local government, and an outside police authority and will have just over a month to draw up an action plan for the force.
The team has been assigned by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary after it decided it had not seen a convincing plan for improvement.
Zoe Billingham, from HMIC, said: “We’re concerned about the enduring issue of Nottinghamshire Police’s under-performance.
“We have not seen a convincing plan for improvement.
“People in Nottinghamshire don’t feel safe in some areas — particularly in the north of the county.
“HMIC have secured a strong team to objectively review the root cause of their problems —whether they lie with the force, the police authority or the way they work in partnership.”
HMIC is already working with the Nottinghamshire force amid concerns crime in the north of the county is not falling as quickly as elsewhere.
The Newark command was looked at on Tuesday.
Last week it was announced the force was redeploying 84 officers to A Division (Mansfield and Ashfield) and B Division (Newark, Sherwood and Bassetlaw).
About 45 of them will be on B Division, with some bolstering under-manned response shifts and CID.
Earlier this week county MPs discussed the force’s poor performance with the Chief Constable, Julia Hodson, at Westminster.
It was the extra resources that dominated the meeting for the Newark MP, Mr Patrick Mercer.
He feared it was a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
“Of these 84, 20 are homicide detectives. The aim is that they and others like them will free-up local officers from desk jobs and allow them back out on the beat.
“The murder rate is low, but what happens if it goes back up again?”
Superintendent Mark Holland, who is in charge of operational policing in Newark, Sherwood and Bassetlaw, said: “In 2003 firearms were all over the city and we were investigating 32 murders at one point.
“We lost officers to the city from this division.
“When I came here officers would come to work and there would be 200 graded calls that required a response.
“The next day those 200 response calls would still be there. It could be quite demoralising.
“We have reduced that demand purely by getting on top of it.
“There are rarely 20 calls still needing a response from one day to the next.
“People should now get a same-day service. It is time to look at returning people to the front line. I don’t accept it is a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul. The job that these officers had has been concluded.”
