Norfolk PCC proposes tax rise to tackle domestic abuse and rural crime
Mr Orpen-Smellie wants more staff and better software to tackle domestic abuse and more drones to combat rural crime
Norfolk's Police and Crime Commissioner has confirmed his proposed annual budget for the service will see each household pay £10 more than last year, if approved.
It's a plan that specifically wants to tackle domestic abuse and rural crime and he wants to hear our thoughts on it, over the next ten days.
Giles Orpen Smellie says he wants the service to be able to tackle hidden crimes better:
"The public want to see more visible policing. The police have got to crack on with crime, which is their core business. A lot of that crime happens outside of the public view, 24% of all reported crime in Norfolk is domestic abuse which by it's very nature is behind closed doors.
If each time you want to either look at a potential perpetrators or victims mobile phone, you've got a huge amount of data there. So, you need to invest in the technology to look at that data and you need to invest in the people to examine that data.
If we don't get that investigation bit right and present those cases in good order, it won't go anywhere. In the case of rape the prosecution rate, let alone the conviction rate in Norfolk, is 1.5%. It's woeful and we've got to do something about that".
He went on to say that increasing the forces drone capacity is key to tackling rural crime:
"Searching for a person out in the country-side can absorb a huge amount of officers and volunteers. But, putting up drones can quite often resolve the issue quite quickly. We can usually solve the problem using a drone faster than we can get a police helicopter from the National Police Air-Service up from Essex. So, it's a really effect piece of technology that helps policing go further".
But he concluded by saying that a stronger and more well-rounded service can't come for free:
"The public want the reassurance of seeing uniformed officers very visibly patrolling their community. These things come at a cost and we live with a legacy of austerity, where the money is less than it might of been because of those past decisions".