Chief Constable's Annual Report 2021/22

Demography

The population for the county has increased by 13.5% from 692,000 in 2011 to 785,200 in 2021.

The latest census data for Northamptonshire shows the county has grown by 13.5%. For context, since the last census in 2011, there are now 93,200 more people living in the county.

For both North and West Northants, this is higher than the overall increase for England and the joint second largest increase in the East Midlands.

The force remains alive to the challenges faced by the increases in population and demography and will adapt and adjust to meet these challenges.

The country is facing significant cost of living challenges, and where this has impacted in previous years, policing has seen an increase in what could be determined as austerity crime, something the force is alive to and focussed on.

Demand

Protecting vulnerable people, investigations and managing offenders are the top three areas of organisational demand risk in the next 12 months.

Investigative demand was impacted by the pandemic and all crime demand for the Force is forecast to increase gradually year on year to 67,392 incidents by the end of 2025/26 (an increase of 9.2%) with demand being driven by increases in serious crime, fraud, cybercrime, and volume crime.

You may recall that in my 2020/21 Annual Report, we made fundamental changes to our policing model in 2020. A key part of this was to create an omni-competent officer role, whereby response officers carry a crime workload (known as PIP 1). This was an important change, with one of the benefits being a reduced handover, leading to a better service to victims of crime.

This year we saw an increase in crime demand on response, but thanks to the changes we made back in 2020, we were prepared for this.

Public safety and welfare incident demand is likely to increase at a level higher than forecasted while missing persons continue to account for a significant part of this incoming demand.

Demand across all emergency services is significant, and with the pressures currently facing the NHS and ambulance services, policing is experiencing a higher proportion of collateral demand.

However, we continue to look for solutions including effective inter-operability arrangements with the Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service, whose initial support for high risk missing persons incidents and the use of drones, has proved effective.

"The Force has confidence in its approach to meet future demand"

An influx of newly recruited officers, trained during the pandemic, do present a risk. A younger workforce profile for officers nationally, and less experience on the frontline is something being seen across UK policing.

Despite these challenges, the Force has confidence in its approach to meet future demand, especially with its innovative place-based approach to prevention and intervention.

If you wish to read further information regarding the Force's budget, the latest version of the annual statement of accounts can be found on the Force Finances page.