AVON and Somerset Police’s Chief Constable, Sarah Crew, has been questioned over the force’s operational approach to tackling anti-social behaviour and police visibility.

Clare Moody, Police and Crime Commissioner for Avon and Somerset, asked questions of Chief Constable, Sarah Crew’s approach at the latest Police Question Time held on Monday, October 14.

Asked why some residents complain of never seeing police in their local area, Sarah Crew, who was appointed to the role of Chief Constable in November 2021, said: “The latest local confidence survey data says that, in the last 12 months, 33% of residents have either seen an Officer of PSCO in the last 7 days – that’s a third of residents. That might be higher than people imagine.”

The latest data is comparatively higher than visibility statistics recorded pre-2020, which stood at 23%.

In addition, Crew commented: “If we look at the last month, almost 50% of residents say that they’ve seen a Police Officer or a PCSO in the last month. The facts suggest there is some visibility out there.”

The Chief Constable also raised her concern about Police Officers and PCSOs, reflecting that “there’s a fear that they’re tied to desks and computer screens.” All officers from across the force spend around 66% of their time outside of their police stations.

Clare Moody also interrogated the Chief Constable’s approach to anti-social behaviour in Somerset, questioning the benefits of hotspot funding. Between 2019 and 2022, Avon and Somerset Police was granted £2.2 million for high-visibility insight-led police patrols.

Crew said: “We’ve been doing hotspot patrols for serious crime for three years. We’ve had extra funding for that this year, and we’ve also had that extra funding to target anti-social behaviour.”

The additional hotspot policing is being undertaken on overtime by Police Officers and PCSOs from across the force area.

“We’ve got 37 anti-social behaviour hotspots, and 34 serious violence, to give a sense of how extensive it is. We don’t normally advertise where those locations are because we don’t want to put any stigma on those places.”

For the year to date, Avon and Somerset spent 4,253 hours in hotspot locations. 62 arrests were made, 34 stop and searches executed, and nine weapons were recovered.