Top cop wants to make Northamptonshire ‘safest county in the UK’ as he launches three-year plan for Northants Police

Ivan Balhatchet, who was appointed as Northamptonshire’s top cop in January, launched the force’s policing plan for the next three years yesterday (Wednesday, April 23).

He said the priorities had been informed by months of work and consultations and responded to a ‘really challenging period’ for policing both locally and nationally.

Mr Balhatchet said: “A lot of work has gone into this to get it right and what sits at the very top of this is my vision to be the safest county in the United Kingdom.

"It’s aspirational, but as chief constable that’s what I should be.

“This is for the public, this is what they should be holding me to.

"I want people to read it and think, if we achieve what we’re trying to achieve with this plan, we’ll be doing a lot right and moving forward.”

The plan identifies three key areas of strategic focus, which include trust and confidence, improving the quality of investigations, and developing skills in the workforce.

Last year, a report rated the force’s investigation of crime as ‘requires improvement’, due to the inappropriate allocation of some high-risk cases.

Mr Balhatchet also said that, despite Northamptonshire Police being the biggest it has ever been, it has a ‘young workforce’.

A priority will be to invest in officers and ensure they are getting ‘the right mentoring, the right tutorship and the right training’.

The police chief told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “Launching it now is hopefully showing people that positive sign of where we’re going.

"We have had tragedies in the county, but we’ve also had things like the violence reduction unit set up in the county, things like the child exploitation hub, the fact we’re investing more into our domestic abuse team.

“Our last seven months of data for public confidence [in police] have gone up by six per cent - I’m not being complacent about that, it’s still a low number, but it shows progress.

"HMIC only last year said we’re not answering 999 calls quick enough - the last set of data that’s just come through shows we’re one of the best in the country now for answering calls in 10 seconds.

“We’ve still got so much work to do, but I’ve got an ambition. It’s a three-year plan and I’m excited about our future.

“I think we’ve got the right priorities because we’ve listened to the public.

"People can challenge me about it, we can talk about it and I think that’s a positive thing.”

Published alongside the policing plan is the force’s control strategy which identifies the key crime types which Northamptonshire Police will apply particular focus to.

They include anti-social behaviour and neighbourhood crimes, child abuse and exploitation and violence against women and girls.

Northants Police say many of the themes identified will be underpinned by campaigns in the future.

Mr Balhatchet also said that the plan aligns with the public safety plan, published by police, fire and crime commissioner Danielle Stone.