18 December 2015

Can early intervention reduce demand on the police?

News and events

With significant cuts to policing budgets in recent years, police leaders have increasingly needed to think creatively about how they can move ‘upstream’ to prevent crime and reduce demand. The Revolving Doors Agency and the Transition to Adulthood Alliance (T2A) have published a briefing highlighting promising practice from across the country as police and crime commissioners (PCCs) try to meet this challenge.

A significant amount of police time is spent responding to vulnerable people who have fallen through the gaps of community and health services. For example:

  • 84% of all control room calls relate to ‘non-crime incidents’, often linked to issues of vulnerability, public protection and safeguarding
  • Mental health-related incidents account for an estimated 20-40% of police time
  • Relatively small numbers of individuals with multiple and complex needs place high levels of repeat demand on the police, both as repeat offenders and victims of crime.

Partnership working is crucial to addressing these challenges. However, too often local services are not structured to work in a preventative way, focusing on one problem at a time, and only responding to issues once they have escalated rather than intervening at an early stage.

With a responsibility to reduce crime and protect police budgets, PCCs have an interest in showing leadership locally on this agenda.

This briefing is the fourth in a series of ‘PCC spotlights’ highlighting examples of promising practice among PCCs on challenging partnership issues.

Read the full briefing here.