Policing Matters Campaign Relaunched To Help Public When Making Calls

Published on: 28 May, 2018
Updated on: 30 May, 2018

Surrey Police is re-launching its #PolicingMatters campaign to improve public knowledge about what is and isn’t a policing matter.

It is in a bid to reduce demand on the force for matters that are the responsibility of other organisations to deal with.

The police say that previous campaigns have achieved a significant reduction in non-policing matter related demand, however slow and steady increases have been noted within some call categories, which this campaign sets out to tackle.

A series of new 20-second videos, which have been produced in-house by Surrey Police, encapsulate the top call categories it is phoned for, but that are primarily the responsibility of another agency.

From civil disputes and noise nuisance, to stray dogs and abandoned vehicles, the campaign aims to point people in the direction of the correct agency first time, in turn reducing unnecessary demand on the police. In contrast, the videos also show scenes that depict a high harm policing matter and the areas in which the police must focus its efforts.

Assistant Chief Constable Nev Kemp said: “The demand on policing is rising and as our recent crime statistics show, during last financial year we saw a 14% increase in recorded crime. This includes an 18% increase in high harm offences (serious sexual offences, domestic related offences involving violence, child abuse offences and hate crime offences) which is where we must concentrate our teams and support those that need us most in our community.

“Alongside the increasing demand on our service, we estimate that approximately 20% of the calls we receive aren’t a policing matter to deal with. In most cases we know that members of the public don’t know who to call and so they phone us, but these equate to more than 90,000 calls annually and 300 days in police time.

“The campaign highlights that instances of things such as noise pollution, abandoned or inconsiderately parked vehicles and stray animals are generally things for your local council to resolve, while Citizens’ Advice can offer guidance on civil matters.

“If a call is a policing matter we would also like the public to be alert to the difference between what is an emergency and what isn’t. Calls to 999 should only be made for serious crimes, crimes in action or if someone’s life is in danger. If it is a policing matter but does not fall into those categories we ask the public to report online or call 101 anytime. Rest assured, when it is a policing matter, we will be there for you.”

Useful information on which agencies are responsible for some of the common call types the police receive can be found on its website.

Responses to Policing Matters Campaign Relaunched To Help Public When Making Calls

Jim Allen Reply

May 28, 2018 at 12:31 pm

Always interesting to see organisations stepping away from their publicly perceived duties, eg Highways England and A3 litter picking. It is GBC’s job but only when HE decided it is safe for them to do it.

Regarding the Police – a report on 101 can result in a fifteen-minute wait before answering and to report online is data farming at its worst and I wonder if it is GDPR compliant.

If it’s bad or poor parking it’s GBC’s responsibility unless parked within ten metres of a junction, ie a ‘dangerous obstruction of a junction’, when it is a police ‘traffic’ matter. A broken down car on A3 is for HE’s support team but only after the police have assessed if a crime has been committed.

How can the public be expected to know who’s responsible? I suggest two numbers are required urgent (999) and non-urgent (101) for all services provided to the public and a trained operator can then which service is required: litter parking, criminal behaviour, serious health, fire and rescue, trivia (chip shop closed) etc.

If organisations are going to say “not my job” – we need to cater for it.
Martin Elliott Reply

May 28, 2018 at 12:49 pm

It was only yesterday I replied to a Surrey Police Service tweet, possibly as part of this campaign.

I pointed out, as good as apocryphal tales are, the link to online reporting is far more useful and it should be included.

Unfortunately, it’s a common error by the authorities. I also had to suggest to Surrey Matters concerning domestic fire escape plans that they should provide the link to their webpage with details on the subject. They seem to have adopted that.