Committed to ensuring West Mercia Police is delivering for local communities, Police and Crime Commissioner John Campion is once again shining a light on the public’s priorities.

On Monday 26 February, the PCC and West Mercia Police’s Temporary Chief Constable, Alex Murray will meet at the next formal Assurance & Accountability session.

To begin the meeting, the PCC will support and challenge the force on public confidence. While it’s welcome that confidence in West Mercia Police has remained above 80% over the last 12 months, the force has not yet hit its aspirational target of 88%.

Contact with the police is the main driver of confidence, so it will be another opportunity for the PCC to raise concerns on the performance of the non-emergency (101) line. Between October and December 2023, the average response time increased to 4 minutes 31 seconds.

West Mercia Police’s progress to disrupt Serious Organised Crime will be discussed with the PCC focusing on how the force is meeting the Home Office’s four strategic priorities, as well as looking at declining satisfaction rates for victims of violent crime.

The force will also get the chance to explain how it is delivering on the policing national priorities by making a significant reduction in crime impacting communities. These priorities include homicide, serious violence, drugs and county lines, neighbourhood crime, cyber-crime and victim satisfaction.

To close the meeting, the PCC has requested a quarterly HMICFRS update on the progress being made around the national inspection on the effectiveness of the police and law enforcement bodies’ response to group-based child sexual exploitation.  The PCC has also considered the views of those with lived experience to support his scrutiny of force performance at this meeting.

PCC John Campion said: “As your voice in policing, I am committed to ensuring you have confidence in West Mercia Police to deliver a level of service you expect and deserve.

“This meeting is a chance for me to support and challenge the Chief Constable to ensure the force is making strides to bring up levels of confidence through their performance, as well as addressing other key areas within policing.”