Chairmans Speech - Annual Dinner

Monday 16 July 2007

Ladies and gentlemen, I thought that in order to let you work up an appetite for your dessert, it would help if I stood up to say a few words.

So, good evening everybody. It gives me enormous pleasure to able to welcome you all on behalf of my fellow members of West Midlands Police Authority. We value this event very highly because it brings together so many of the people who make a contribution to the West Midlands area. This evening gives us the opportunity to get to know each other better, to strengthen our working partnerships and to thank you all for the work you do with us. It is a time for us to reflect together on the past year and look forward to the time ahead. We have seen quite a few significant changes over the last few months, not only locally but nationally, with a new prime minister. And of course, the appointment of our new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith who is one of our local MPs and serves Inkberrow and Cookhill constituency in Redditch.
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I must say that I for one am delighted to see that the Prime Minister has followed the good example of this Authority by putting a woman at the top in the Home Office. Here at the Authority , we have been sorry to lose members from our team whose terms of office have ended in the last year. But we have been equally delighted to welcome new colleagues who have joined us. We have also had very special cause to celebrate the awards of a knighthood to Sir Paul Scott-Lee and an MBE to our Vice Chairman Bishop Derek Webley. And I shall return to these people later on in my speech. This evening, we have a larger number of guests present than we have had at any previous Authority dinner. Gathered together in this room are senior police officers, council leaders, representatives from crime and disorder reduction partnerships, community safety leads, faith groups, custody visitors, chairs and members from our neighbouring police authority areas and individual guests of Authority members who have special roles in the West Midlands. Something we all share in common is a deep commitment to raising the quality of life for all our local communities. At the heart of all we do are the partnerships we are working together to build and reinforce. It is through active partnerships that we can give an integrated approach to working with our communities. As neighbourhood policing is embedded into our area we are witnessing real success in the improvements it is bringing to peoples quality of life. The police and other agencies are now talking and working with their local neighbourhoods to determine their top priorities and needs. They are then putting in the necessary resources to tackle problems and bring about solutions.
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Something you may already be aware of but I am sure you will not mind if I remind you is that during the last year, overall crime fell by over 3 per cent. Over the last six years, there have been 93,000 fewer victims of crime across the West Midlands. And house burglary is at its lowest for 27 years. A recent survey showed that 95 per cent of people feel safe in the West Midlands during the day. These are all fantastic results. Ones that a great many people in this room can feel very proud of, because of the part you have played in making them happen. I have already mentioned that we have custody visitors present here this evening. Our 81 custody visitors come from all sections of the community. Between them they provide assurance to our communities by checking the conditions in which detainees are being held in police custody. But what you may not know is just how many visits they make. Between the 81 of them they conducted 920 visits over the past year. On behalf of everyone here, can I thank you and your colleagues for volunteering to undertake this valuable service.

The past months have held some particular challenges for many of us. An example of which was operation Gamble, in which 8 people were arrested at addresses in Birmingham as part of a counter-terrorism operation. This was led by the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit, and included not only officers from the West Midlands Police but also the Metropolitan Police.

It was a situation in which it was vital that we worked sensitively. Clearly such operations can cause concerns amongst our communities. The West Midlands was widely congratulated for the way in which this operation was handled both at the time and subsequently. Something that it has been important to emphasise is that the police were not targeting communities or faiths but pursuing suspected criminals. I am sure that everybody in this room is very much aware of the importance of reassuring people who feel more vulnerable and anxious at such a time. During the past year, there have also been some very exciting projects in which the West Midlands have invested. One I would particularly like to highlight to you is our new forensic science facility. We have invested 5 million pounds in a purpose built state-of-the-art centre that will house all services around forensic evidence. It will provide high-tech equipment and techniques that will play a crucial role in quickly bringing offenders to justice, particularly in serious crime cases. Not only is this an example of the force being a national leader but is a much more effective and efficient of delivering the service, which will result in significant cost savings. I am sure that you are all just as eager as we are to continue to build on this and other successes. But this is certainly going to be a challenge for us, because we will be facing a much tighter financial climate. Over the next financial year, the Police Authority will need to ensure that the force makes 3 per cent savings.

This means that the force will need to make savings equating to 16 million. I know you will appreciate that these savings will be difficult to achieve while at the same time continuing to achieve reductions in crime and reassuring communities. As an Authority, we are doing our best to fight our corner on behalf of the West Midlands. There is no doubt that it is in our favour that the Chairman of the Association of Police Authorities is our own member Cllr Bob Jones and that I myself am also a member of the executive committee of the association. We are thankful that this puts us in a position to voice our concerns about funding directly with Tony McNulty, the Home Office Minister on behalf of the West Midlands and other police authorities. Now, as I mentioned earlier, I would like to talk to you about people we are sorry to have lost from the Authority this year. Annette Middleton, Bhajan Devsi and Kelly Willis came to the end of their terms of office as independent members of the Authority in April. Sadly Annette was unable to join us this evening, but I would like to say a word of thanks for the contribution she made. Annette served with us for four years and became Chairman of the Professional Standards and Quality Committee. I am very pleased to say that Bhajan Devsi is here with us because it gives me the opportunity to thank him for being such a committed and hard working member of the Authority. During the eight years he has worked with us, Bhajan became Chairman of the Customer and Community committee. He made a major contribution to the building of strong and constructive relationships between the police, the Authority and the communities with which he has close links.

Whilst he has gone from the Authority, I have little doubt that he will continue to make constructive contributions to our communities and the work of the Authority. We would not wish to let him go without giving him a token of our appreciation of all his hard work and dedication. May I therefore please ask you Bhajan if you would accept this gift from all your colleagues at the Authority, with our grateful thanks? Presentation to Bhajan More recently, we were delighted to hear that our Vice-Chair Bishop Derek Webley has been awarded an MBE. I am sure that all of you who know Derek will be equally pleased to hear that he has received this well-deserved recognition for services to community relations in Birmingham. During the eight years that Derek has worked for the Authority, we have seen on many occasions that he is willing to go above and beyond the call of duty to serve the people that he cares so much about. His understanding of our communities is a huge asset to the Authority and police. So Derek, I know all my fellow Authority members join with me in most heartily congratulating you. And we would like to use this as an opportunity to offer our own small recognition of your recent award. Presentation to Derek The latest honours list has brought home to us how very fortunate we are in the West Midlands, to have people of exceptional calibre, influencing and affecting our daily lives. It is thoroughly appropriate that the exceptional leadership skills of our Chief Constable have been nationally honoured with the award of a knighthood.

Sir Paul Scott-Lee has worked tirelessly to lead our force for the benefit of our communities. The force is nationally recognised as a leader in so many fields. From Human Resource practices through to neighbourhood policing and dealing with serious and organised crime. I would like to say on behalf of the Police Authority and if I can be so bold, the communities of the West Midlands, that we are incredibly lucky to have him as our Chief Constable. But we also recognise that a major factor in all that Sir Paul has achieved has been the support of his family. And so in recognising the contribution made by Sir Paul, we are also aware that this would not have been possible, without the equal commitment of his good wife Lady Scott-Lee. We would therefore like to take this opportunity offer these flowers to you Lady Scott-Lee , as a small token of our appreciation of your role in West Midlands life. Presentation of flowers to Lady Scott-Lee It now behoves me, Sir Paul to sum up in a few words the enormous difference your leadership is making to this area. This is a huge challenge, bearing in mind what you have achieved here in your time as Chief Constable. It is almost impossible to encapsulate in a few lines, but I will try to.

And I believe the best way I can do this is by saying that year on year crime has reduced in the West Midlands and more importantly, under your leadership, the force has brought about an environment where people say they feel safer now than they did previously. We could not let this moment pass without giving you a token of our recognition of the importance of your award. We would like to offer you our gift from all the members of the Authority.
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And whilst this may not be the Buckingham Palace gardens, I am sure you will agree that we have come as close as we could to re-creating the atmosphere here in the Botanical Gardens. Now, has anybody got a sword I can borrow? Presentation to Sir Paul Scott-Lee