Public accountability meeting – 25 May 2021
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Meeting overview
This month’s meeting focuses on:
- North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service – Fleet
To explore the composition of the current fleet in providing the best possible service to the public and managing the risk within our county and how evidence-based fleet planning could improve the flexibility and capability of our fleet in future.
- North Yorkshire Police – Local policing
Exploring how local policing teams serve their community.
Ask your question on this month’s hot topics
The full procedure for asking questions at this meeting is available here: Procedure for public questions
- To ask a question in advance
Send your question to [email protected] before the day of the meeting. Please include your name and address with your question. - To ask a question during the meeting using Twitter
To ask a question during the live broadcast, post your question on Twitter using #NYscrutiny - Not all questions may be able to be used, but they will inform the Commissioner’s questioning and the general discussion.
Attendees
- Chair – Philip Allott, Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner
- Lisa Winward – Chief Constable, North Yorkshire Police
- Andrew Brodie – Chief Fire Officer, North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service
- Thomas Thorp – Interim Assistant Chief Executive & Deputy Monitoring Officer, Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner
- Caroline Blackburn – Interim Assistant Chief Executive & Deputy Monitoring Officer, Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner
Fire
Thematic presentation:
- Andrew Brodie, Chief Fire Officer
- Simon Garnett-Spence, enableNY Head of Assets
- Mark Naylor, Group Manager, Head of Response and Resilience
Performance update:
- Phil Whild, Area Manager, Director of Capabilities
Police
Thematic presentation:
- Mark Khan – NYP Superintendent Partnerships Hub
- Stephen Thomas -NYP Superintendent Senior Operational Commander
Performance update:
- Mark Pannone, Assistant Chief Constable
Agenda
| No | Time | Item | Lead |
| 1 | 13:30 | Attendance and introductions | Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner |
| 2 | 13:32 | Minutes of previous meeting and Actions | All |
| 3 | 13:35 | Public questions | Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner |
| 4 | 13:40 | Fleet Presentation | Fire |
| 5 | 14:25 | Performance update | Fire |
| 6 | 14:45 | Local Policing Presentation | Police |
| 7 | 15:30 | Performance update | Police |
| 8 | 15:50 | Public questions | Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner |
| 9 | 15:55 | Any other business | All |
| 10 | 16:00 | Tuesday 29th June | 2021 |
Meeting papers
- 4. Fleet Presentation – Fire
- 5. NYFRS Performance Update – May 2021
- 6. Local Policing Presentation – Police
- 7. Performance Report Police – Operational & FCR Final – April 2021
- Bob Gray, Harrogate
2 questions, is the precept going to increase, and if so why and by how much?
Secondly where do you publish or how as public do we find out who are local police officers are, I personally have not for the past 2 years seen or been introduced to any local police officers, I certainly wouldn’t know there names?
Observation, if you want to engage the public, get your officers to engage, build rapport and relationships with the general public.
Quick answers:
Current information about the precept is published on our website, here: https://www.northyorkshire-pfcc.gov.uk/precept
Information about your local policing team is published on Police.uk, here: https://www.police.uk/pu/your-area/north-yorkshire-police/harrogate-town/?yourlocalpolicingteam=yourteam
- Alison, North Yorkshire
I’ve got a question for Phillip please. He talked about a “programme” of issues he wanted to tackle when he was appointed but he is well aware that the Police & Fire Plan is the public’s plan and not his. When, and how, will he consult the public about our priorities?
- David Bell, Harrogate
Question: over the past twenty years at what point did the speeding and loud sports exhausts in Harrogate Town Centre become of no consequence to the police even though they have extensive powers to stop it. - David Bell, Harrogate
I’ve sent a question to you for your Public Accountability meeting this week. This is a separate request .
Yesterday in Harrogate Town Centre I witnessed at least 9 separate cars speeding in the town centre in three incidents, ranging from Aston Martins to hot hatches.
It’s Sunday and I have just returned from a walk into town again. Once more , multiple joyriders using the town centre and its surrounding roads as a racetrack and not a police officer in sight . Where are they all?
This needs immediate action before someone is killed or seriously injured .
Successive Crime Commissioners and Chief Constable’s have failed the towns residents on this point, I hope you will use this fresh opportunity to take immediate visible and effective action.
- Linda Loy, Harrogate
We live in the Granby area near the Skipton road and there is one aspect of the traffic that troubles us and that is cars that have very noisy exhausts which I assume have been modified. They accelerate up to or after the traffic lights and presumably carry on like this wherever there is a stretch of open road around Harrogate. They are a blight on this beautiful town both the loud noise and associated extra pollution they cause when they accelerate.
Is it legal for these vehicles to have this capacity to make this extra loud noise? I know in some cities in Europe this problem exists and is being addressed with noise detectors that work similar to speed cameras.
The speeding of high performance cars around the town is another major safety concern. Please can this become a priority in local policing? - Russell Davidson, Harrogate
May I ask if the new Commissioner is aware of the concerns of local residents about speeding in Harrogate town centre? There are some 10 primary culprits who are repeatedly seen racing round the town centre in souped up cars which have had their exhausts altered so as to be noisy or backfire. These drivers are primarily racing along Station Parade, York Place, West Park and Victoria Avenue. There are police cameras at the relevant junctions but the local police do not seem to be bothered, despite several people (including myself) having complained and expressed concern about noise and the danger to life.
- Liz Betts, Danby
We have a problem with cars speeding as they come in and out of Danby. How do we stop cars, and particularly white vans, from driving at 60 mph instead of 30 mph?
Quick answer:
Information on how to report your speeding concern is available on our website: https://www.northyorkshire-pfcc.gov.uk/speeding
- Gwen Swinburn, North Yorkshire
A tweet this morning reminded me of the policy implemented a few weeks ago where most individual police accounts and some team accounts were banned by the Chief Constable.
Certain officers seem to be excused the ban, without explanation -which seems very unfair.
Please can the new PCFC review the twitter ban policy, investigate and address the impact on police officers and citizens and find a way forward.
In the interests of transparency the Chief Constable should publish a list of those she has allowed to keep their accounts.
Response re recent changes to North Yorkshire Police social media accounts from North Yorkshire Police
We are making some changes to our social media accounts across North Yorkshire Police.
We are doing this in line with recommendations from the National Police Chief’s Council on the management of police social media accounts which are based on public feedback and the policing strategy for digital contact.
Digital contact is more than our social media presence – it is about developing our capabilities for the public to be able to engage with us across all digital channels.
Behind the changes that we are making is the absolute imperative to protect our communities and our officers, staff and volunteers.
Despite stating that our social media accounts are not currently for reporting crime we carry the risk that crime and intelligence shared on our official accounts – or accounts that look like official police accounts, could be missed. We have examples of this already happening in North Yorkshire and in other forces. This leaves the public at risk and our officers exposed.
Monitoring our current social media landscape would be a huge task that we are not resourced to undertake. It also presents a very scattered and confusing picture to the general public who are unclear of the status of many accounts that ‘look official’.
It is therefore difficult for the public to know where to look on social media for reliable and verifiable information.
The changes we are putting in place will see fewer North Yorkshire Police social media accounts in order to make it easier for our communities to find the latest updates from NYP and to know where to look for the facts/ reassurance. This also supports development of our ability to respond to the issues that matter to our communities more quickly and effectively.
At the end of March we ‘condensed’ our multiple district accounts down to eight which now cover our geographic districts. You can find these here.
Further down the timeline, we will also be changing our approach to individual and specialist team accounts and this will be communicated moving forward.
Our many officers, staff and teams who already post and share social media content have not been banned from posting.
We will be asking them to share their engaging, interesting and personal content across our force wide and district accounts and some have already started doing this.
This provides our officers with a much larger audience than any individual account. If they wish to, they will be able to give their name/ collar number so the public still know and follow the ‘voice’ behind the post as we know how much their personalities are valued by our communities.
Our imperative in condensing our social media accounts is to provide the public with a clearer landscape for interacting with North Yorkshire Police on-line.
These changes will improve the service we provide to our communities through social media, enabling them to receive the NYP content they need through fewer channels. This is not a unique approach for North Yorkshire Police, other forces are already following this approach and others will be adopting it shortly.
Additional information
Statement on NYP website about the changes. Changes to our social media accounts – North Yorkshire Police | North Yorkshire Police
The National position set out by Chief Constable Gavin Stephen, national lead for Social Media and Digital Engagement
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- Statement from national lead CC Gavin Stephens Blog: Fewer police accounts – why, what’s lost and what’s gained? (npcc.police.uk)
A twitter thread of 22 messages published 31 March which outlines the evidence base for the approach that the force is now taking. https://twitter.com/CCGavinStephens/status/1377245791782379526
Questions received during the meeting
- RedKiTe @redkite24
how can you stop the extra noisy exhausts? the anti social behaviour on the roads is often late at night. Is it legal? - David @daveebell
I am completely underwhelmed by the response from the police regarding speeding loud exhausts in Harrogate Town Centre/ York. It’s illegal not antisocial by the way . The response suggested they weren’t even aware. This only emphasises the lack of a police presence in towns.
Watch live
- YouTube:https://youtu.be/7teCUhsDWes
- Commissioner’s website: http://bit.ly/PAM25May2021