Wherever you live you deserve a fast police response. This shouldn’t change if you live in a town, village or rurally.
When something goes wrong you should be able to rely on help being there when you need it, but in recent years some of our rural communities have felt let down by police response times – as local farmers told me last summer.
When tools and equipment go missing or you’re threatened by intimidating behaviour help should be on hand quickly.
That’s one of the reasons why in 2019 we promised to put 20,000 more police officers on our streets, and it was great to see that target hit last year. These officers are already helping to put this right.
There’s been some really encouraging data nationally, with crime falling in England and Wales by 50% since 2010, and even since March 2020 theft has reduced by 50%, knife crime by 8% and domestic burglary by 30%.
We’ve also got record numbers of police officers on the beat here in Kent, and every ward now has its own named officer – something I campaigned for last year. Along with our local Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Scott they're working hard to keep us safe, and I'm grateful for all that they do.
I’m pleased to see the data shows that neighbourhood crime – antisocial behaviour, vehicle crime and theft - is falling across Kent. Without the hard work of everybody across Kent Police this would not be possible.
On top of more boots on the ground and bobbies on the beat we have seen a further £28 million allocated to the force’s budget for 2024/2025 with further money coming from the Home Office’s Violence Reduction Unit and the Safer Streets Fund.
More money and more officers are a great start, but the most important thing is that people across Faversham and Mid Kent feel safer and it’s why I’ve made faster police response one of my 5 local priorities.
At the end of last year, I invited Maidstone parishes to the Downswood Community Centre to talk to Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Scott and Maidstone District commander Mark McLellan.
It was great to hear Kent Police have increased the size of the Rural Policing Unit and they’re also reducing the time taken to answer 101 calls.
At the end of last month, I saw rural policing in action when I visited the Rural Policing Team in Faversham to hear how they’ve been tackling rural crime locally. The introduction of Farm Watch is helping local farmers report crime digitally and get specialist rural teams to incidents quicker.
If you’ve got something you would like to raise with me about crime in your local area, please do get in touch with my office. The more we report crime the more effective our police can be.
Working together will help keep our communities safer.
