Ensure compliance with the Strategic Policing Requirement
The Strategic Policing Requirement (SPR) is issued by the Home Secretary and focuses on those areas where government has a responsibility for ensuring that sufficient capabilities are in place to respond to serious and cross-boundary threats and supports Chief Constables and Police & Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in balancing local and national priorities.
First issued in 2012, the current version was revised in 2015 and contains the following national threats and key priorities:
• Terrorism
• Serious and Organised Crime
• A national cyber security incident
• Threats to public order or public safety
• Civil emergencies
• Child sexual abuse (CSA)
Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables are required to have regard to the SPR in exercising their respective roles.
This commitment is essentially considered ‘business as usual’ and falls within the core PCC function of holding the Chief Constable to account for the delivery of an efficient and effective police service.
Through the existing governance structure, the PCC receives regular updates on policing performance, including Dorset Police capability and contribution towards the national policing priorities, usually by exception.
The PCC is also briefed on how the Force works with partners on a regional and national basis in tackling some of these most serious threats - for example the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit (SW ROCU) in tackling organised criminality; Action Fraud in coordinating the response to online and other targeted fraud; and the National Crime Agency (NCA) in responding to CSA and other national threats that also translate to the regional and local.