PCC FACTCHECK : Bobbies on the beat in St Ives

Our Police & Crime Commissioner, Jason Ablewhite, is up for re-election in 2020. No doubt he'll be putting a good spin on his achievements. St Ives Matters will be keeping an eye on the veracity of his claims. Like the Facebook page to get future PCC Factchecks.


As an example, in the Hunts Post 14 December 2018 Mr Ablewhite gave the following reason for the lack of bobbies on the beat  :

A lot of crimes these days that we have to try and deal with are cyber crime, which a lot of the time will require officers to sit behind a desk and investigate. This is one of the reasons why people may not be seeing as many officers physically on the beat, but doesn't mean they aren't doing their job.

Really? A lot of crimes are cyber crimes? So loads of Cambridgeshire police officers are sat behind a computer screen solving cyber crimes? Here is their own list of offences included under the heading of cyber crime.

Financial scam emails, computer hacking, downloading child pornography and extreme pornographic images, computer virus attacks, online stalking, harassment and bullying.

Surely those crimes need specialist skills way beyond the abilities of the average bobby. So how many cyber crimes does Cambridgeshire have? UK Crime Stats splits Cambridgeshire's recorded crimes into various categories, as shown below. There were zero cyber crimes recorded for the period July 2017 to October 2018.

Cyber crime must be a feature of at least some of these crimes. Having stated 'a lot of crimes these days ... are cyber crime', presumably Mr Ablewhite knows the figures. Or possibly not. In answer to the question, Mr Ablewhite's office replied :

The Commissioner does not hold the information you have requested.

When our Police & Crime Commissioner explains away the lack of bobbies on the beat, shouldn't it be based on fact? The rest of his explanation sounds equally dodgy, when he states further causes as vulnerable people in need of help or guidance, vulnerable health issues and a lot of elderly people walking out of their homes on their own and going missing. To read the full response, click here. Maybe the Chief Constable does know. Watch this space.

It's a puzzle where all our police officers are. The St Ives & Ramsey policing team cover an area with almost 5% of Cambridgeshire's population. Presumably we should therefore have about 5% of the front line resources. That's 50 police officers.

How many do we actually have? One police sergeant and seven PCSOs, total 8. Presumably some are allocated to areas with higher crime rates. But 85% of what we pay for? Maybe Mr Ablewhite can give us a better explanation before election time arrives.