Police staffing levels (FOI)

Request

Please provide the following:-

A

Policing staffing levels (just police officers) of the past five years to show descending numbers.

B

Can the States of Jersey Police (SoJP) confirm the number of police officers have dropped from 240 to less than 200 currently?

Who is doing the work previously done by the larger strength and if no one how has the service provided been adversely affected ?

C

Can it be confirmed that the minimum number of police officers has dropped from 14 to just six officers to cover Island wide?

D

Can the Police "Injury On Duty" statistics, along with the nature / cause of the injuries, be provided for the last be provided, and also to consider any increase on a smaller number of officers?

E

Can it be confirmed on how many occasions over the past two years have officers been calling for assistance but due to low staffing no assistance was available?

F

Is it true that recently the Duty Inspector had on at least one, but reportedly more occasions, called in all officers as is was unsafe for them to be on the streets in such small numbers?

G

What percentage of officers are actually allocated to front line policing and what percentage is generally office bound?

Whilst I accept there will likely be some legal means of denying this information is it not just, or fair, for the public not to know the truth rather than hiding behind a veil of secrecy before an officer is seriously injured - or worse!

Response

A and B

Officer numbers are less than five years ago; however we strive to maintain current emergency response and other service levels. For example, over the same five year period, the States of Jersey Police’s responses time to emergency calls remains well within the target times:

Equally public perceptions of safety, as well as confidence and satisfaction in the services provided by the States of Jersey Police have continued to increase during this period, as measured independently through the Jersey Opinion Lifestyle Survey.

The States of Jersey Police have also undertaken a number of changes in order to improve efficiency and provide better value for money. These include:

• a new policy to grade and prioritise calls for service, according to the assessed Threat, Harm and Risk each poses. For low impact incidents, this has led to the introduction of appointments with people at a time that is more convenient to them, or an incident being resolved over the telephone

• the States of Jersey Police has, over the last five years, also replaced a number of police officer posts and which are now undertaken by civil servants. This conversion has contributed to the reduction in the overall number of police officer roles, but has not affected the Force’s overall ability to provide services to the public

• officers are now equipped with significantly improved technology, ranging from Body Worn Cameras and more recently mobile phones or tablets that enable them to access Police IT systems away from Police Headquarters. This now allows officers to spend more time in their community on meaningful ‘police work’ and less time doing administration back at Police Headquarters. This investment in technology continues and a new range of Police Applications (Apps) will be launched later this year that will further improve police officer efficiency and effectiveness

• finally, the States of Jersey Police has recently completed a review of its current operating model and identified a number of important changes that will ensure that it continues to cut out wasteful practices and focus more on core policing activities

C

We strive to match demand with available officers. This demand has changed over the years and we are now able to more closely align officer numbers to match the expected operational requirements throughout the day. This will mean officer numbers are no longer part of a shift pattern that has a static start and end time for all officers, but now changes according to the day and time of day. As such, no single figure for officer deployment can be given. It is not appropriate for us to disclose actual officer deployment numbers in order to protect operational capability and therefore Article 42 (Law Enforcement) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

D

Please see the PDF attachment below:

Injury on duty statistics 2014 to 2018

E

An analysis of incident logs over the last two years has been conducted. Records show that there have been no instances where officers have been unavailable to assist their colleagues.

F

On occasion officers may be temporarily withdrawn from a situation, for example as part of a tactical response to diffuse crowd dynamics, leaving it instead to be monitored by CCTV but with officers remaining nearby. However, the States of Jersey Police have not withdrawn from the streets because it is unsafe.

G

All States of Jersey police officers who are fit for duty can be called on to perform front line duties. Uniformed and plain-clothed officers are all front line officers. Less than 10% of officers spend their eight hour day in the police station. This includes custody officers, control room staff, intelligence officers and training department. Civilianisation has allowed posts once filled by police officers to be performed by civilian staff. Not all these officer posts have been retained however the role is still performed.

Article applied

Article 42 Law enforcement

Information is qualified exempt information if its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice –

(a) the prevention, detection or investigation of crime, whether in Jersey or elsewhere;

(b) the apprehension or prosecution of offenders, whether in respect of offences committed in Jersey or elsewhere;

(c) the administration of justice, whether in Jersey or elsewhere;

It is the policy of all UK forces not to give specific details of numbers of officers available at any particular time. Some of the public may be interested in these numbers but it is not in the public interest generally, to disclose the operational capability of any police service. To do this could benefit those who wish to exploit a particular situation for their own purpose.

The police will use whatever resources it has to achieve the most effective and efficient use to prevent and detect crime, protect life and property, maintain the peace and complete any other duties required by statute or common law.