It’s good that our Police and Crime Commissioner for Essex has a website and a blog, but perhaps he hasn’t got it right yet. Which it not surprising as he’s got more important things to do. But here are three nitpicks:
The first nitpick is that you have to hunt around to find his full name. He mentions his first name, Nick, quite a lot, but you have to search around to find his surname, Alston.
The second, more major nitpick is that you can’t leave comments on Nick’s blog. There are some other blogs like that, but it does make them weaker. It also makes them less trustworthy. For example, if we wrote something incorrect or totally unfair on onlineFOCUS, someone could leave a comment to set things straight. And knowing that we get comments make us concentrate a bit harder on getting things right.
The third nitpick is that there aren’t many links. For example the website mentions the report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary on how Essex Police manage domestic abuse cases. Nick writes:
HMIC finds that Essex Police has made improvements in its handling of these incidents, especially in providing background intelligence and information to officers, responding to calls quickly and investing significantly in training.
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The report also identifies several areas where further progress needs to be made. In particular, HMIC finds that Essex Police should make further refinements to the risk assessment process, increase the focus on perpetrators including targeted activity around repeat offenders, continue to develop means to enhance the confidence of victims to report crimes, and intensify its work with partner agencies across the county to safeguard victims. These are all constructive and insightful recommendations, and I am grateful to HMIC for their work.
But there’s no link to the actual report, to allow you to read it for yourself….
Anyway, we found a link – here.