The official version of this document can be found via the PDF button.
The below content has been automatically generated from the original PDF and some formatting may have been lost, therefore it should not be relied upon to extract citations or propose amendments.
1240/5(6636)
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS BY DEPUTY G.C.L. BAUDAINS OF ST. CLEMENT
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 17th JANUARY 2012
Question
Given that in written answers on February 14th 2006 to a question by Deputy J.B. Fox of St. Helier it was stated that the vehicles used previously were high powered and inappropriate for untrained use and that not having a motorcycle unit had not resulted in any loss of service to the public, in fact the addition of a Proactive Unit actually gave a better service to the public with a decrease in reported crime and an increase in detected crime; would the Minister explain why police motorcycles have now been re-introduced, the cost of the new vehicles and state how many trained specialist riders the States of Jersey Police currently have?
Answer
The States of Jersey Police disbanded its motorcycle section in 2004 in order to create a Proactive Unit to fight a rising tide of break and entries. The Proactive Team was successful in this regard and within 2-3 months many of the offenders had been identified and arrested. Since the introduction of the Proactive Unit, the States of Jersey Police continued to move incrementally to a more proactive style of policing and as a result the Force has had significant success, reducing burglary by up to 31% since 2004.
Over the following years the Force continued to refine its proactive capability, firstly by combining the Proactive Unit and the Drugs Squad to focus on serious and organised crime and prolific offenders and latterly, under the leadership of Detective Superintendent Stewart Gull QPM, by developing a Priority Crime Team and an enhanced Criminal Investigation Department. The SoJP firmly believes that these changes have led, at least in part, to the significant successes it enjoyed last year in terms of crime reduction and continued high levels of public satisfaction.
However, in early 2011 the new Chief Officer made it clear that the levels of serious and fatal road traffic collisions (RTCs) in the Island were unacceptable and he tasked senior managers within the Force with the responsibility for reducing road traffic collisions. Subsequently the Force saw a 9% reduction in injury RTCs during 2011. Despite this success road safety remains one of the Force's main priorities and feedback from the public continues to show that road safety remains a priority for Islanders also. Naturally therefore, the Force has continued to look at ways to improve road safety and following a long period of research and consultation, the Force decided to purchase four motorcycles. The motorcycles are not being reintroduced as a stand- alone police motorcycle unit, rather the Force will train two officers from each of the existing five uniform shifts and the motorcycles will be used as patrol vehicles, not solely focused on road safety, but also on responding to reports of crime and disorder. By utilising existing resources in this way, the Force will be able to develop a motorcycle capability, without having to either increase resources, or make cuts in other areas, thus enabling the Force to maintain its current proactive capability.
The Force continues to look at ways of making efficiency savings, especially in light of CSR and a number of projects have already been undertaken in this regard. One of the Force's aims for 2012 is to increase police visibility and to this end, the Force has recently moved to a solo patrol' policy. Solo patrols have the advantage of increasing police visibility at no extra cost, and now with the purchase of the motorcycles, it has enabled the Force to look again at its fleet in order to seek further efficiency savings in terms of a reduction in police cars and police vans - which are more expensive to run than police motorcycles.
With regard to the power of the machines, the new motorcycles are less powerful than their predecessors - 688cc versus 1300cc and 1100cc previously. The Force currently has 13 officers who were previously authorised and trained to ride police motorcycles and in time, the intention is to train a further 10 officers from the uniform shifts. The States of Jersey Police has purchased four motorcycles at a total cost of £37,264.00.