New chief calls on Boris to
THE new top officer of Gwent Police has opened up about the challenges the force faces from drug trafficking, prostitution and increasingly complex criminal investigations.
Chief Constable Pam Kelly also called on new Prime Minister Boris Johnson to provide clarity on his promise of hiring 20,000 more officers for Wales and England, saying her force needed extra resources to be visible on the streets and proactively tackle crime.
Ms Kelly, who was formerly the force’s deputy chief constable, was formally appointed the new Gwent Police Chief Constable on Monday.
“Any additional resources is absolutely what we need,” she told us.
“We need that so we can increase our visible policing presence but also so we can be proactive.
“I hope that the funding becomes much clearer in what these additional staffing levels look like for us so we can start making some long term plans.”
After becoming Prime Minister, Mr Johnson said that his promise of funding an extra 20,000 officers made during the Conservative leadership race was a priority and “recruitment will start in earnest”.
He said: “As I said on the steps of Downing Street this week, my job as Prime Minister is to make our streets safer.
“People want to see more officers in their neighbourhoods, protecting the public and cutting crime.
“I promised 20,000 extra officers and that recruitment will now start in earnest.”
Gwent could receive an estimated 200 officers if the pledge is fulfilled, according to the force’s Police and Crime Commissioner Jeff Cuthbert.
Mr Cuthbert has also called for more information from Westminster, saying: “We cannot rely on the local council taxpayers to fund these new officers and we are looking forward to more clarity from the UK Government on how these posts will be funded.”
Ms Kelly said police officer numbers are only just recovering to the level they were at in 2010 when the effects of austerity began to bite.
The force has 1,308 officers as of March this year.
Meanwhile, drug use and deprivation are rife in some parts of Newport. Ms Kelly said she remains committed to tackling the problem of drugs at its source by targeting gangs directly.
“We all know that the use of controlled drugs is prevalent in our communities,” she said.
“You would have seen Operation Jigsaw, which is about tackling serious organised crime.
“In Newport in particular, in the Pill area we have locked up a number of offenders in just the last 12 months.
“Those operations don’t just take place overnight, they take time to build up good cases and we have literally convicted between 20 and 30 people in the last 12 months for drugs supply.
“That will continue. As a deputy I led a lot of those investigations, as a chief constable I’m determined to make sure our communities are safe and those who supply drugs are dealt with robustly.”
Ms Kelly said that while the issue isn’t as prevalent in Gwent as it is in other force areas, officers are dealing with a growing number of drugs operations related to so-called county lines.
County lines is a process by which criminal gangs from large English cities like London, Birmingham and Liverpool extend their operations into smaller cities and towns.
Young or vulnerable people are often exploited into selling drugs within those communities.
“We have young people who are involved in drugs, we are seeing some very early signs of county lines in terms of young people either coming into the Gwent policing area or young people from Gwent being used to go into other policing areas,” she said.
“But it is not hugely prevalent.
“The issue for us ,whereas ordinarily the sphere of influence of county lines has been within cities, we now know some of that is overspilling in our smaller communities and villages.
“That’s not hugely prevalent here in Gwent, but we are trying not to be complacent.”