Alibon Ward Police
We have implemented some big changes in the Ward Panel and in the way we receive feedback from the community in the last month. Building on the excellent groundwork laid by Michelle Thomas and the Team, we have expanded our contacts in the ward through creating a Key Individual Network. This comprises of people who are willing to speak to police on a regular basis and provide updates on their immediate neighbourhood. Each Individual will have a dedicated officer from my Team who will be responsible for maintaining that regular contact and ensuring that the Individual’s input is fed back to the Team. In four weeks we have identified and recruited 35 Key Individuals with the intention of having an overall network of approximately 60 members.
The Ward Panel has also undergone changes and many former members have now joined the Key Individual Network, which is a reflection of their continued dedication and enthusiasm. We have recruited new members to the Ward Panel to ensure that all areas of the Ward now have a voice and have also started using a new venue, the Evangelical church in Osborne Square, to broaden our base. In addition to this, I have drafted a Constitution to provide some guidelines and a Code of Conduct for the meetings to bring a degree of formality to the proceedings. That said, the Ward Panel business remains the same: the members review the work of my Team, the crime figures and any input from the table, then elect the priorities for my Team to concentrate on. The meeting is still an open meeting and any person can still attend and speak to the Panel about their problems, although voting rights remain with the Panel members.
The Panel will meet every ten weeks and it is my intention to alternate between our two venues. I will also be holding Ward Surgeries in the intervening time, every five weeks, to allow anybody who wants to speak to us an opportunity to do so in a more informal setting.
This is a time of change for the Ward and how the Team interacts with and receives information, intelligence and criticism. I am hoping that this will ultimately make us more accessible as well as more accountable. Alibon has one of the lowest crime rates in the borough and, with the increased contribution from all the members of the ward, we can keep it that way.
Ward Panel Constitution
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Ward Police Statistics
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