Change to prioritise frontline policing

Criminal Justice Reform

I have been clear that innovation and improvement must be prioritised and accelerated to support better and quicker court outcomes for victims and to provide efficiency and value for the public.
The overtime cost of officers being cited for court – with very few of them being called to give evidence – is £3.4m and £2.1m of that is for citations of officers while on annual leave. This not a sustainable position financially, or operationally. We must reduce cancelled rest days and leave and increase the time officers can spend in communities.
The time it takes for victims to get justice in this system is far too long. Victims and witnesses, including police witnesses, are repeatedly cited to court when they are not giving evidence.
A national roll-out of body worn video is evidence of policing’s commitment to lead and support the transformation that can reduce these inefficiencies.
There are a number of work streams we are also supporting including:
• A new summary case management process that aims to improve court efficiency and outcomes for victims through early disclosure of evidence.
• A court scheduling app to reduce the demand on officers by taking account of shift patterns and rest days for officers when organising court business.
• The further roll-out of Digital Evidence Sharing Capability which revolutionises the way the criminal justice system processes evidence such as CCTV footage.

Fundamental system wide reform is required have been meeting with key partners and I believe there is a shared recognition of the challenges and desire to drive meaningful improvement.

Retail crime reporting pilot - Fife

We have made our first arrest following a process we are piloting in Fife which enables retailers to share evidence, such as witness statements and CCTV, with police through a platform used by Retailers Against Crime.
A male shoplifter at a sports shop in Dunfermline was identified from the information and CCTV footage submitted via this reporting approach. The pilot commenced in April and will run for approximately six months to evaluate its effectiveness.