A key duty of Ards DPP is not only to help shape the local policing plan but to subsequently monitor the performance of the police against that plan. To that end the District Commander is asked to present a report at each public meeting highlighting the progress that the police have made in the day to day discharge of their duties including;
a) a summary of recorded crime and detection rates within the Ards Borough, and
b) an update on specific issues relating to the policing of the Borough that have aroused the public’s interest or concern.
As well as this regular update Ards DPP will also ask the District Commander to present a detailed report on policing in the district to a public meeting of the Partnership every six months. Not only will this report identify progress that the police are making in meeting their published targets and objectives but also allows the Partnership to seek information which will enable them to assess police performance in the following areas.
a) The steps that are being taken to progress policing with the community.
b) The contribution that the police are making to any community safety projects within the Borough.
c) Progress in achieving targets set out in the Local Policing Plan and in the Annual Northern Ireland Policing Plan.
d) Progress in achieving targets relative to crime prevention in the Borough.
Reports from the District Commander can be viewed here
At the end of each year the Partnership will assess the performance of the police and comment on it. Following the meeting of the Partnerhsip held oon the 11th June 2007 the Partnership commented on the police performance in 2006-07 as follows.
Although Ards DPP welcomes the significant decrease in the level of domestic burglary this is outweighed by the very disappointing performance in other key areas, namely that the overall level of crime rose by 4.4%, the number of vehicle crimes rose by 22%, the number of violent crimes rose by 12.25% and the overall clearance rate fell from 29.8% to 23.1%. Also the number of people killed or seriously injured on the roads was not reduced and the number of children killed or seriously injured increased by 58%. Ards DPP is very concerned about this performance and would ask the Commander and his officers to make every effort to ensure that key objectives and targets in 2007/08 are achieved