Responsibilities

The purpose of the Safer Neighbourhood Panel (SNP) is to provide local scrutiny and review of the performance of their Local Policing Team (LPT) and hold to account (for performance) the LPT Commanders in support of the role of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC).  This involves fulfilling various functions on behalf of the PFCC such as:-

·         Challenging Local Police Performance – ensuring that crime data and complaints data is reviewed, the LPT is challenged for its performance and use of resources and that matters of concern and poor performance are escalated to the office of the PFCC.

·         Examining Local Performance Issues – identifying local areas of concern, examining data to establish validity of concern, challenging LPT performance on the issue and where appropriate providing evidenced based recommendations on how to make improvements.

·         Core Scrutiny Reviews – providing a local perspective of key topics for review at the request of the PFCC ie. Stop and Search

Membership

Each SNP will comprise of a Chair elected by Panel Members.  The Panel should have sufficient numbers and breadth of skills to ensure that the Panel can effectively fulfil its function.  To ensure that a local arrangement can work well, a Panel will consist of between 12 and 15 individuals from a mix of backgrounds including:

·         Local residents (not representing any other interested parties) who should constitute at least half of the Panel

·         Representatives of the business community

·         Neighbourhood Watch

·         Local Councillors (membership available at two levels, ideally there would be one County Council representative and one District or City Council representative)

The number of elected political representatives on a Panel should never exceed a third of the Panel membership and the membership of each Panel should where possible reflect the diversity of the area that it serves.