drop police and crime plan response final

7/29/2019 dROP Police and Crime Plan Response Final

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DraftP

olicean

dCrim

ePlan

forGlo

ucester

shire

-aresponsefromdROP

As an emerging group of disabled

leaders we feel it necessary to provide

you with our view on your draft Police

and Crime Plan. We very much hope thatthis letter will be the start of something

new - a dialogue between disabled

people and the Police on an equal basis

which is solution based and organised.We essentially welcome your lengthy

report but there are many gaps,especially surrounding disability and we

would like to provide you with our

thoughts and views.

DEAR MARTIN SURL,


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Until now there has been no disability

leadership in Gloucestershire and a

lack of engagement by the Police

which, at best, sees disability as above

and beyond the duties of its officers.YOUR CONSULTATION

PROCESS AND HARD TO

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HISTORIC - You clearly state that by design all police and crime commissioners

have a mandate to 'hold the police to account on behalf of the public' and by

extension will 'change the face of policing' 1. We welcome this as we now have a

clear opportunity to use past content of our lived experience and marry this up with

new crime plan for Gloucestershire. Until now there has been little orno disability leadership in

Gloucestershire. Combine this

with a lack of engagement by the

Police which, at best sees

disability as above and beyond

the duties of its officers and we

have a negative historical context.

This could be seen as a product

of legislation but we see your

leadership as a powerful

expression of a change, a change

that can enable disabled people

equality in safety, movement andaccess to work.

Disabilityhatecrime

hasbeenlargely

invisiblein

GloucestershirePolice

reporting-thismust

change.

YOUR CONSULTATION PROCESS AND HARD TO REACH

GROUPS - In your draft you speak of a future consultation process through

Gloucestershire Association for Voluntary and Community Action (GAVCA) in

which you may be able to utilise a 'focus group' research tool. We must point outthat in your list of specific groups that you identified, you have not listed people

with severe mental illness (SMI) or people with physical disabilities. We are alarmed

at this and point out that without their views you will not have a complete, justifiable

consultation process that is inclusive of all people with disabilities. DISABILITY HATE CRIME -To date there has also been underreporting of

disability hate crime in the county. This is of particular concern to us and this isreflected in our analysis of data provided by the Home Office shown in Figure 1

below.


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Ourskillsandknowledgeofdisabilitywillbringinvaluablesolutionstoproblemsfacedbyyourforce.

You have a perfect opportunity to

match the progress made by

forces in Norfolk and Suffolk and

even excel by Increasing the awareness amongst

your force of Disability Take a lead with the media to

prevent stereotyping of disability

and paint a true picture, for

example, that people with SMI are

more likely to be victims of crime

rather than perpetrators. 2These are only twoexamples of the work thatneeds to be done. We havemany more suggestions andinvite you to meet us towork through them.

dROP (disabled ResponsiveOrganised People) can take an

active role in these elements of

your plan. As a result disabled

people in Gloucestershire will

feel increasingly protected and

there will be a re-establishment of

the Peelian culture that gives

reality to the historic tradition

'that the police are the public and

the public are the police'. 31. Police and Crime Plan 2013-2017 Draft v.6 (7.1.13) Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner forGloucestershire, p62. Norris, A 'Disability Hate Crime snap shot report,, UK Disabled People's Council, (June 2010)3. Police and Crime Plan 2013-2017 Draft v.6 (7.1.13) Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for

Gloucestershire, p84. Key to Figure 1 on page 4: HC = Hate Crime; DHC = Disability Hate Crime


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Norfolk Suffolk Merseyside Northamptonshire5 Leicestershire South Wales Avon and Somerset Wiltshire Dyfed-Powys Staffordshire North Wales West Yorkshire Surrey Nottinghamshire Cumbria West Mercia North Yorkshire5 Durham Cleveland Lancashire Essex Kent Northumbria Dorset Sussex Hampshire London, City of Bedfordshire

Gwent Humberside Warwickshire Derbyshire Thames Valley Hertfordshire Greater Manchester Cheshire Gloucestershire Lincolnshire South Yorkshire West Midlands British Transport Police Cambridgeshire Metropolitan Police Devon and Cornwall

Fig 1: % of HC that is DHC by Police Force Area

0 7.5 15 22.5 30

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