Festus Akinbusoye, APCC Lead for the Prevention portfolio
Festus Akinbusoye, APCC Lead for Prevention, provides an update on his national portfolio.
"Ten years ago only about 20% of PCC's Police and Crime Plans had the word 'prevention' in it. But now pretty much all Police and Crime Plans include 'prevention', which is quite an extraordinary achievement of the last ten years. This means that prevention can be at the forefront of what PCCs & chief constables are delivering for their policing areas.
"In Bedfordshire we are working with local authorities and schools on how we take an early intervention approach to keeping young people in school, which is quite a remarkable journey/approach. And the Safer Streets Fund is also helping PCCs to keep people safe on the streets.
"One of the challenges we face is that policing historically has been a response/reactionary-led approach and what we're trying to do through the Prevention portfolio is to shift the narrative & focus to that of the Peelian Principle of policing which is to prevent crime and not just apprehend criminals and we're making good progress."