22 February 2024

1. Welcome/Apologies and Introductions

Attendees –
Andrew Bailey (CHAIR)
Michael Lloyd (CPS)
Mike Cunliffe
Becca Evan (YC)
Ffion Greenfield (YC)
Harriet Smith (YC)
Max Crompton (YC)
Bella Mulcock (YC)
Ceri Davies – Cheshire Police – Scrutiny Sergeant
Gareth Wrigley – Cheshire police – Use of Force Lead
Jason Murray – Cheshire Police – Race Action Plan

2. Police Accountability Meeting Chair comment and update

3. Members update

4.Hate Crime

ML updated the team about the positive conviction the for hate crime in Cheshire. The number of convictions getting through has risen to 78%. Cheshire are the third lowest in the country for NFA which is fantastic for lifting public confidence with these types of incidents.

Cheshire have 100% sentence uplift for hate crime.

Looking through t he data it was noted that OC16 for outcomes was quite high 19.7% - not a real understanding of why

Action – Ceri Davies to obtain a further breakdown of the data.

It was noted that despite their being a drop overall of hate crime incidents – there was a slight increase In Warrington over the past 12 months.

All panel members notes that the SDE recording of hate crime was poor with 41% being left blank. It was accepted by the group that some of these would have been people refusing but we need to make sure that officers are asking the question – especially with respect to hate crime.

Discussion around anti – Jewish and anti – Muslim crime and all panel members agree that as this is increasing this is something for us to keep an eye on in future meetings .

Action – Can Mike Lloyd be made aware of any hate crime incidents that are linked to the crisis in the middle east (Op Talac) – Action to go to Jez Taylor.

Becca Evans states that when they have surveyed young people 64% have experienced hate crime in schools. This does get fed back to the PCC and one recommendation is for more engagement between police and young people.

Michael Cunliffe agreed with that and explains that he has previously sent data but that the CI in is area has changed.

Action – Michael to resend data to Jason Murray and to CC Tom Hall and CCG Co-Ordinator (emails to be passed). (PAM/6 & PAM/7)

Police officers as a victim of hate is discussed with particular concern around repeat victims (one officer being a victim of hate 15 times in 2023). Andrew Bailey asks what support is in place for these officers. Mr Murray discusses what the force can offer and Mike Lloyd reminds the panel that they should be entitled to an enhanced service under the victims code.

Action - Mr Murray to follow up on the wellbeing of police employees who have been the victim of hate crime.

5.Use of Force

Mike Cunliffe talked about his experience on Taser training and that it was really helpful to see it from the perspective of what the officers do and why – he said he was surprised how much Taser is really emphasized as a last resort.
Members of the youth commission also think that they would find this useful and would like to observe both PST and CED to get a better understanding of the decision making around when force is used.

Action – Ceri Davies to get in touch with YC about possible dates to observe. (PAM17)

Mike Cunliffe talked to through the UoF data and some discussions were had about the location of force being used and the reason why that could be – type of incident etc.

Mike mentioned that there was a disproportionality rate with respect to minority ethnic groups and use of force and in particular CED use and people who officers perceive as Black. Mr Wrigley acknowledges this and says that he too had seen it in the data and is hoping to do some extra work around the scrutiny of that data.

Ceri Davies and Andrew Bailey talk about the numbers not being exactly right as the volumes for people who are perceived as black are so low (7) that it is difficult to get an accurate percentage rate. Also a further discussion about non-Cheshire residents and how that can affect the data.

6. Stop Search

Harriet Smith went through the Stop and search data and said that one of the things that jumped out at her was the positive outcome rate (37%) and when there are so few things being found – are all the searches necessary?
Ceri Davies explained that this is actually above the national positive outcome rate (26.5%) and that as a scrutiny sergeant I am quite happy with that – it shows that we are searching the right people

Mr Murray and Ceri Davies then explain to the panel about grounds and how officers form grounds and that this decision to search doesn’t always guarantee that subjects have something on them – but it also doesn’t mean that they have never had anything on them. The grounds should be there to form the decision to search in the first place.

Harriet then discussed the fact that the number of searches has gone up but the find rate has gone down – this is noticeable especially in the North (Warrington). Ceri Davies agreed and said that isn’t the sort of data that we would hope to see.

Harriet then discussed the disproportionality rate for Stop and search. This is currently 3.9 X for SDE Black / Black British over SDE White. Although below the national average this is not what we would hope to see.
Ceri Davies then showed the panel some data from December and January where the non-Cheshire residents had been removed from the numbers of stop (Ceri explained that this is not exact as it is only for SDE Black so to get a true figure we would need to remove ALL non Cheshire residents from the data). The data showed the disproportionality rate at around 2.9 X more likely and just indicates the impact that non Cheshire residents have on the data (esp in Dec when Cheshire residents only made up 38%).

Due to the scrutiny of the disproportionality rates Ceri Davies explains the extra level of scrutiny that is taking place and Becca Evans asks if she can share this information with young people who feel that they are stopped by the police due to race. Ceri explains that we should be sharing that there is extra scrutiny in place and that we would hope to engage with anyone who felt that they had been treated unfairly due to race.

7. CCG overview

Ceri Davies had a brief discussion about CCGs and the fact that both quantity and quality has gone up and that there is now a standardized Power point in place and this has given CCG coordinators a framework to work to. This has seen a real uplift in quality with all LPU’s (bar Macc – due to loosing their coordinator) completing CCGs in Q3. Ceri showed the data from LPUs and the number of incidents that had been reviewed – no incidents of note.

8. Race Action Plan for Cheshire

Mr Murray explained that he is new in post and in just getting to grips with his workflow. He explained that he understand how the PRAP streams into all other areas of work and where the extra work is required. He is hoping that he can drive the PRAP forward and that he will have some further updates for the next meeting.

9. AOB

Mike Cunliffe has highlighted that the PAM external website needs some work and that it doesn’t explain what it is or have details of recent meetings.
Ceri Davies has confirmed that this is her responsibility so will look to make some improvements to try to encourage new members and to highlight all the good work we are doing here.

Action – Ceri Davies to update the PAM external website.