OPCC ANNUAL REPORT
Constabulary’s time now spent as first responders to the mental health crisis that is gripping our country, what you might call ‘conventional’ police work is being squeezed. Typical of this, is the high number of people who go missing in Gloucestershire, with many of them going missing repeatedly. Records show that from January to May this year, there were 1,382 missing episodes recorded by the constabulary; 588 of those were linked to mental health; 269 related to children with mental health problems. Indeed, most of our missing individuals are children and in 43% of those cases, mental health is a factor. Research also suggests that on average, a child goes missing 18 times, a situation further compounded by the fact that 67% of missing episodes recorded are between the hours of 6pm-7am. This may be as a result of other statutory services being unavailable, but if the Constabulary is now the agency of first resort as well as last, the time it has to spend on burglary, assault, anti-social behaviour, vehicle and other crimes is bound to be reduced. Of course, it could be that the increase is due to more accurate recording and the partnership work underway to ensure missing is reported at the right time. Certainly, there has been significant collaboration with multi-agency care plans for those who are frequently missing or are in crisis and this has resulted in a reduction in the number of recorded missing fromWotton Lawn. Notwithstanding the impact on families and friends, it is an immense strain on police
resources. Callous as it sounds to evaluate a human problem in terms of hard cash, in the context of a Constabulary under considerable financial pressure it is not unreasonable. Finding answers to the causes and consequences around mental health requires a multi-agency approach. The first priority of the police will always be to keep people safe, but they are having to do more with less and have been for some time now l
Since coming in-house on 1 June, 2018, until 31 March 2019, the National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme (NDORS) has been delivered to 20,094 errant motorists, 58% of which related to offences committed in Gloucestershire. 913 courses were delivered at seven different venues across the county, which will soon be eight. The new long lens equipment purchased through the PCC allows mobile officers to spot offences other than speed, including the use of mobile phones while driving, tailgating and non-use of seatbelts. 408 of these offences were detected in the last quarter l NDORS endorsed
64 | September 2019 | www. punchline-gloucester .com
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