Council tax rise will provide essential funds for the police

The Police and Crime Panel has unanimously agreed my plans for police funding over the coming 12 months, which is based on a council tax precept increase of £10 for a band D property.

This will make a big difference to our resilience as a force and will ensure we continue to deliver an effective, improved service to the people of Derbyshire.

Your support really counts. Last year, I was able to increase police officer numbers by 58 while recruiting 62 more police staff.

We invested in visible policing in our communities, road safety and speeding, rural and wildlife crime and protecting vulnerable people.

All of these things were identified as priorities by the people who live and work here and I listened.

There is still a long way to go.

Through austerity we lost 450 police officers and almost 300 police staff. The Government’s promised uplift, which will bring around 85 more officers to Derbyshire next year (rising to 283 by 2022/23), will help us to sustain our performance but it is still someway short of where we were previously.

Nevertheless, we will do all we can to reap the rewards of this additional investment.

Your feedback remains invaluable to me. Now that my #D383 tour of Derbyshire has drawn to a close, I’ve been visiting our districts to report back what action we have taken to address your concerns.

Since the start of the year, I’ve visited Alfreton, Shirebrook and Chesterfield, meeting local residents to share the work we’ve undertaken to tackle local problems.

This month we will visit Derby, Ashbourne and Ilkeston.

In addition to the feedback events, I’ve been on ‘patch walks’ in Swadlincote and in Derby city centre on a Friday night, meeting neighbourhood police officers and talking to residents in the area.

I’m also heading off to Glossop to see a demonstration of drone technology and how it is assisting officers to detect crime.