PSNI exceeds performance targets
01 Jul 2010
In his opening comments to the Northern Ireland Policing Board in Belfast today (1 July), Chief Constable Matt Baggott paid tribute to the two police officers injured in South Armagh on Tuesday during a joint operation with HMRC.
He said: “One officer remains in hospital with serious injuries, received whilst providing professional and protective policing to the community. Both officers are but two examples of the everyday heroes that I have spoken of before, and we wish them and their families well during this difficult time.”
Chief Constable Baggott also warned the Board of the importance of working to secure a budget that will allow the delivery of effective and efficient policing.
Acknowledging that hard decisions will be required, the Chief Constable assured the Board that: “We will present the options honestly and transparently to the Board and through you to the Minister of Justice.”
“But let me be clear. If our budget is reduced we cannot continue to do everything we currently do. It is simply not possible.
The Chief Constable then went on to explain how Police have exceeded a number of key performance targets set by the Northern Ireland Policing Board.
Successes of note include: a 15% reduction in the number of non-domestic violence with injury crimes (from 2,819 to 2,396), and 34 fewer people and seven less children killed or seriously injured on the roads, (from 97 to 63 and 13 to 6 respectively).
There has been a 9.8% point increase in the detection rate for sectarian crime, which is 4.8% points ahead of the target, and a 13.7% decrease in the number of non-domestic burglaries, against a target of 5%.
Speaking about the latest performance statistics, Chief Constable Baggott said: “While each of these improvements are to be welcomed, we are not complacent. It is our aim to ensure that we have the right number of police officers on our streets, in our communities and neighbourhoods to ensure that we continue to make a real difference.
“Some months ago I made a commitment to increase personal contact with communities and put extra police officers on the frontline. This is already underway with nearly 400 more officers now working in neighbourhoods across Northern Ireland.
“More of my colleagues will be joining them in the coming months and by tackling bureaucracy, streamlining our systems and further improving our use of technology we will enable police officers to spend more time with their communities, listening and acting in real partnership to combat harm.”
“We still have further improvements to make and we have many challenges ahead. By striving to focus on the real, personal experiences the public have, whether as victims of crime, or communities affected by crime, and by dealing with these experiences in a professional and protective manner, we can work together to make a real difference,” Chief Constable Baggott said.
Other successes which Police are working towards achieving target for include, a 6% reduction in the number of incidents of anti-social behaviour (against a three year target of 15%), a 5.5% point increase in the detection rate for Domestic Crime with injury crimes (against a target of 10% points) and a 3.2% reduction in the number of domestic burglaries (against a target of 5%).
There have been smaller increases in the detection rates for racist crime, up 0.5% (against 5% target) and detection rates homophobic crime up 1.3% (against a target of 10%).
There have been small drops in the detection rate for violence with injury, down 0.2% (against a target of a 10% increase), a 1.5% drop in the detection rate for more serious sexual crime (against a target of a 5% point increase) and a 3.5% drop in the detection rate for robbery (against a target of a 5% increase).
Chief Constable Baggott went on to assure board members that: “Our approach to tacking these issues will remain a key policing priority. Our efforts will focus on listening to communities, identifying local issues of concern and working together to solve them.
“We will protect our communities by working to reduce serious harm, delivering real results – taking drugs off our streets, reducing road deaths, dealing with alcohol related crime and working with communities to disrupt terrorist activity.”
The Chief Constable went on to highlight that the significant successes have been delivered against the backdrop of a very real and significant criminal terrorist threat against Police and our society.
He continued: “By working closely with our An Garda Síochána and Security Service colleagues, we remain committed to tackling the dissident terrorist threat. Without this threat, we could concentrate our resources on reducing crime levels even further.
“These are testing times, but Police remain committed to working with all communities to provide the public with the level of policing and support they deserve,” Chief Constable Baggott concluded.
