Information from public to form police 'vision'

Guernsey's chief of police said information gathered from a community survey and a public meeting would "form a vision and a mission" for the force.

The comments came as part of his first community meeting - where islanders could meet Damian Kitchen, and listen to his plans for the force over the next few years.

About 60 people attended the meeting, consisting of police, the general public, deputies and prospective deputies.

Mr Kitchen also said he would like to see updates to the police complaints legislation.

Mr Kitchen said: "The information from tonight and from the survey, from speaking to our officers and from elected members over the last few months...that very shortly will form a vision and a mission for Guernsey Police and some real key pillars around community policing, keeping people safe, protecting victims and our professionalism going forward."

He added: "In terms of watchdogs and the complaints legislation there's a number of us on the same page around that, it needs refreshing."

The Community Survey was launched at the beginning of February and explored a number of areas like trust and confidence in the police, perceptions of crime and the night time economy.

It had 1,698 responses, an increase from the 755 responses the crime and justice survey carried out in 2018 had.

Of the respondents, 16% said they had been victims of crime within the past two years.

Just over 75% of those reported crime to the police but only 36% of those victims were satisfied with the service they received.

Respondents cited a number of reasons they did not report crime.

About 34% said they felt the police simply would not do anything.

Mr Kitchen said: "The barriers for policing is not taking the community with us.

"The barrier to us policing effectively is a lack of trust and lack of confidence."

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