Herts Police and Crime chief hails employment of over 2,400 officers

The PCC’s Police and Crime Plan lays out the strategic objectives of the force for policing, community safety and crime prevention, with chief constables obliged to consider the PCC’s plan in all aspects of leading the force.

Mr Ash-Edwards’ office states his plan has “a clear focus on reducing crime, catching criminals and keeping people safe”.

Headline figures include employment of over 2,400 police officers for the first time in the 2025/26 budget, with 20 PCSOs to be recruited as additional headcount. The force’s Operation Hotspot has also been declared a success, with 26,108 additional hours of high visibility policing patrols said to have brought crime down in town centre hotspots by 14.5 per cent.

Combatting violence against women and girls is a priority, following the ‘Inadequate’ rating in the force’s PEEL inspection last October in the subcategory of recording data about crimes. Inspectors specifically criticised Hertfordshire Constabulary’s recording of sexual offences and domestic abuse crimes.

The PCC’s Police and Crime Plan reveals that in Hertfordshire, females make up 68% of domestic abuse victims, 82% of child sexual abuse and exploitation victims and 92% of victims of rape and serious sexual offences.

The plan outlines partnership work with statutory agencies – typically made up of social services – as well as the voluntary sector, to help protect women and girls from all forms of violence and abuse.

It also details plans to work with partners on a new strategic needs assessment on the issue, as well as hold the the Chief Constable to account for the force’s response to violence against women and girls.

The PCC’s office currently supports the specialist intervention Chrysalis Centre, alongside the Home Office, Herts County Council and Bedfordshire PCC.

Speaking about his plan, Mr Ash-Edwards told media: “What I’ve really tried to do with the plan is focus on the things the public have told us are priorities, mixed with the areas the constabulary is working to improve following the [PEEL] inspection last year, so it’s a real blend of what do the public want to see and the areas that might not be as publicly obvious but actually where we know we need to drive some change.

“My starting point on the plan is that Hertfordshire is a fantastic place to live and work. It is a safe county, we should always be really clear about that, but we need to push forward because maintaining public safety I very much see as the thing that underpins the quality of life and economic success for people here.

“People generally feel safe in Hertfordshire, we did a lot of research and public consultation for the plan, so about 87 per cent of people said in that research that they feel safe in Hertfordshire, and that’s good compared to some of the national figures.

“But clearly there’s still more to do and that won’t be any comfort to the people who’ve become a victim of crime sadly every year.

“Crime in Hertfordshire is quite hotspot driven, there are some parts of the county that have more challenges than others inevitably, and indeed different types of crime are quite hotspot driven as well. My starting point is that people deserve to live in a safe county, that crime and antisocial behaviour shouldn’t be accepted as inevitable.

“That’s the thing that really underpins that first priority in the plan, the kind of wider, community safety partnership activity, early intervention, partnership working, looking at how we can address some of the really localised challenges… So, we’re going to be working with partners for very localised interventions in some of those hotspots.

“Some of that is also linked to the people who are responsible for that offending. We know that a fairly small number of prolific offenders are responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime.

“My office did some work last year around shoplifting for example that showed about ten per cent of shoplifters are responsible for about 40 per cent of the shoplifting. So, it stands to reason if you can make some progress with that cohort of prolific offenders, you can make some quite significant inroads into the types of crime that they’re responsible for.

“We know that prevention is better than cure, I’d rather have fewer victims of crime than lots of victims of crime who have a good experience. We obviously need victims to have a good experience when things happen to them, but I’d far rather we had fewer in the first place.

“The second priority area is around strengthening local policing and building public trust and confidence. We know that this is an area that is a real priority for people in Hertfordshire… the number one thing people said was they wanted was more police patrols and more police visibility.

“That’s the single biggest thing that the public wanted to see and so we’re seeking to deliver on exactly that. We’ve made really good progress with this over the last year, through Operation Hotspot which was the initiative I launched after the election, to put more visible policing patrols into crime and antisocial behaviour hotspots in town centres. Over the last year, 26,108 additional hours of high visibility policing patrols have gone into our town centre hotspots.

“That has started to make a real difference bringing crime down in those hotspots by 14.5 per cent in the last year, and we need to build on that because we know that visibility activity in communities really does work, it’s what the public wants to see, it;s what our brilliant police officers want to be doing.

“We need to make sure we are getting things right both in terms of resourcing and in terms of freeing up some of their time to allow more of that to happen

“Working with both the budgets that I’ve set locally and some of the funding we’ve been able to get from government around neighbourhood policing, we’ve got a new record high number of police officers being achieved this year, so we’ll go over 2,400 police officers for the first time ever this year, which is great.

“Through the funding we’ve got from the Home Office, we’re going to be putting more of those officers into neighbourhood policing teams and indeed, increasing recruitment of PCSOs, so another 20 PCSOs to be recruited as additional headcount.

“The third priority area is in tackling crime and antisocial behaviour as you would expect, very much focusing on the neighbourhood level stuff people want to see effective action on. Antisocial behaviour was set out by the public in the research that I did as both the main reason they feel unsafe in their local area and their top cause for concern in their local community, so a real push around antisocial behaviour in the plan.

“Burglary is relatively low in Hertfordshire compared to other areas but it is one the things residents raise with me the most, It;s a horrific crime that really undermines people’s absolute right to feel safe in their own homes. We’ve got burglary down four per cent over the last year, which is good… but clearly there’s more to do, and a real focus the chief constable is putting on that is increasing the number of burglaries that are getting solved. We know that is both a national and a local priority to catch more burglars and bring more to justice.

“We’re doing a lot of work on retail crime at the moment. Shoplifting is back up to pre-Covid levels, it’s sort of heading towards record levels nationally. It is a real challenge, it is fundamental to the local economy in terms of retailers being able to trade.

“I’ve certainly spoken to independent retailers in the county who’ve said to me that one of the biggest challenges to the viability of their businesses is not tax rates but actually shoplifting and that’s a real problem. That’s something I don’t want to be hearing and we need to do more to address it.

“The fourth priority area is around protecting people from abuse, violence and exploitation. This really reflects the kind of growing pressures on policing and the changes in demand relating to crime over recent years.”

Measures for this include enhancing information sharing with safeguarding agencies, as well as further implementation of orders such as orders such as Domestic Violence Protection Orders and the Domestic Abuse Disclosure Scheme (Clare’s Law) “so that the Constabulary is in the top quartile nationally”.

Robust enforcement action is planned to tackle county lines drug dealing, and the PCC will also review the the force’s approach to cuckooing and ensure the Constabulary is ready to use the new offence once passed by Parliament.