April Media Briefing with Chief Constable Gavin Stephens

Surrey Police is looking ahead to a return to normality and working with local communities to navigate its way out of lockdown, Chief Constable Gavin Stephens said this week.

Following the easing of restrictions earlier this month, CC Stephens wanted to reiterate his thanks to the residents of Surrey for continuing to comply with current covid guidelines.

He said: “We had expected to see a much bigger increase in incidents following the reopening of licensed premises but the people of Surrey have continued to behave in a measured and proportionate way and remained committed to keeping each other safe.

“We visited licensees ahead of the lockdown restrictions being eased, and have been continuing to work with them since, and have had an extremely positive reception from them. While we have seen a slight increase in alcohol-related public place violent crime, we were expecting more, and I am extremely grateful to the licensees and the borough and district councils, as well as the people visiting licensed premises, for all they are doing to ensure people are kept safe.

“We will be continuing to enforce the regulations in relation to indoor gatherings using our well-established 4 Es approach, by explaining, educating and encouraging, but where there are flagrant breaches, we will move to enforcement more quickly, as there are no excuses now for not knowing what the rules are.”

The Force is currently experiencing a high level of demand, managing the policing of lockdown alongside business as usual, and CC Stephens said he expected this to continue as restrictions continue to be lifted.

He said: “We are expecting it to be a really busy summer, with key events such as the Epsom Derby and the Euro football championships already in the diary. We are working with local councils to ensure that other planned large-scale events are managed safely, and that the concerns of local residents affected by these events are taken into consideration.”

CC Stephens said that working with local communities and maintaining their confidence was key to Surrey’s policing style.

He added: “The strong relationships we have built with our partner agencies and the high levels of confidence the public has in us, as evidenced by our latest public confidence survey, have proved vital in working together over the last year to keep each other safe. The high level of compliance we have seen across the county when faced with the various restrictions has also played a major part and I am confident that this will continue and that we will be able to navigate our way successfully out of lockdown over the next few months.”

 

Statistics 

 

The public confidence survey is carried out every year and is conducted by telephone by an external market research company using a random sample of Surrey residents. This includes interviewing 150 residents per borough per quarter over the year (based on 11 boroughs this provides a total of 6,600 residents).

The 2019/2020 report showed that 88.1% of residents were very/fairly confident in their neighbourhood police, with the results of the 2020/2021 survey showed that 88% were very/fairly confident in their neighbourhood police.

FPN stats

1558 FPNs issued according to data from 27 March – 21 April (the majority for breach of regulation 4 - gatherings outside and indoors)

 

Breakdown

450 fines issued for Tier 4 Offence - Person living in Tier 4 area, leave / were outside of place where living, without reason    

301 fines issued for Tier 4 Offence - Participate in gathering of two or more people in private dwelling / indoors in Tier         

93 fines issued for Tier 4 Offence - Participate in gathering of more than two people in public outdoor place in Tier 4 

Gathering of 30 people or more                                           1 + 3 summons

 

£10k fines/summons issued:

Large house party with around 60 people in attendance at an address in Ockham Lane, Cobham in the early hours on 20 December – owner/organiser issued with a summons for ‘holding or participating in a holding gathering of more than 30 people in a private dwelling in a tier 4 area’;

A £10k fine was issued after police discovered a large gathering at an address in Kingswood in the early hours on 2 January. Officers were on patrol when they noticed a large number of cars going into an address in Stubbs Lane. An occupant at the address claimed that they were filming a video shoot for a wedding party promotion. More than 30 vehicles were parked at the address and the majority of the guests were dispersed.

There have been two summons of further £10,000 FPNs;

• One for organising a funeral for more than 30 people in Staines during November
• One for organising a funeral for more than 30 people in Epsom during February

 

Violent crime figures         

Type                                                 Date                    Number

Violence with injury                      April 4                 128

                                                          April 11               134

                                                          April 18               116

 

Violence without injury                April 4                 553

                                                          April 11               467

                                                          April 18               456

Total                                                April 4                 681

                                                          April 11               601

                                                          April 18               572