Work with regional partners to keep people safe

There are a number of examples of how the Commissioner and his office contributes and/or facilitates efforts to work jointly with partners to tackle shared priorities and challenges, including:

Working Together programme – an alliance between Dorset and Devon & Cornwall Police with the specific aim of improving delivery, resilience and flexibility across the two force areas whilst also saving money and increasing efficiency.

The programme has seen the creation of a significant number of shared functions, both frontline (eg roads policing, dog section, drone unit, marine section and armed response) and back office (eg finance and personnel services) along with the convergence and alignment of a number of shared systems and processes.

The programme has realised annual savings of £1.2m which has largely been reinvested into police officers and other frontline policing roles.

South West Regional Collaboration Programme – The PCC continues to play an active role within the long-established regional collaboration programme, which provides oversight and scrutiny of a number of initiatives, including: 

• The South West Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU), a five force collaboration to identify, disrupt and dismantle organised crime groups causing the most harm; 
• The Counter Terrorism Policing South West (CTPSW) unit, delivering a wide range of counter terrorism policing functions through police funded Special Branches and the regional deployment of a number of specialist capabilities;
• The four force Special Branch collaboration;
• The South West Forensics collaboration, unifying services in areas such as Identification Services, Digital Forensics and Crime Scene Investigation (CSI);
• Regional oversight and coordination of the national Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP), which will replace the current Airwave critical communications system with a more technologically advanced Emergency Services Network (ESN);
• The four force Southwest Police Procurement Department (SWPPD), launched in 2012, and providing oversight of all strategic sourcing, contract management and supplier development;
• The Disaster Victim Identification & Casualty Bureau five force collaboration set to go live by early 2020. This will align resources, training, exercises, kit and equipment and the development of standard operating procedures.

South West Reducing Reoffending Board – created in 2019 to co-ordinate efforts regionally to break the cycle of reoffending and influence Government reforms to the provision of probation and offender management services. The board has identified four priority groups for focus:

• Female offenders;
• Resettlement and rehabilitation for those serving short term sentences;
• Youth to Adult transition;
• Veterans

This compliments a number of local groups, working together to tackle shared crime, community safety and criminal justice priorities, including Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs), the Dorset Criminal Justice Board (DCJB), the Dorset Strategic Road Safety Partnership (DSRSP) and Dorset Anti-Slavery Partnership (ASP).