Residents will be first in country to have citizen’s assemblies to help shape local policing

RESIDENTS of Cheshire – including Warrington – will be the first in the country to take part in citizens’ assemblies to help shape local policing plans.

Dan Price, the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Cheshire, is fulfilling his pre-election promises of community-led policing by delivering the start of his citizens’ assemblies, the first police and crime commissioner to do so.
Currently being piloted in Crewe, the citizens’ assemblies will be held across Cheshire and will inform the PCC’s police and crime priorities at a local policing level.
The Crewe and Nantwich area residents are the first to take part in a series of three face to face workshops, facilitated by independent research agency, Thinks Insight. The in-person workshops are supported in between by two online community sessions.
Representatives from local bodies such as Cheshire East council, the local MP Connor Naismith and Cheshire Constabulary also provide oversight as part of an advisory panel.
Each of the police and crime citizens’ assemblies consist of a group of people who live in the local policing area who are brought together to give their views on local crime and policing matters.
The people who take part are randomly selected so they reflect the local population – in terms of demographics (e.g. age, gender, ethnicity, social class).
The assemblies will be rolled out across Cheshire and will be focussed on the nine local policing areas in the county.

Dan Price, a former borough councillor at Warrington, said: “As the voice of the public in policing matters, I want to ensure that the plans I put in place and the topics I focus on are relevant to those living and breathing the everyday issues at a local level.
“I want to make sure that my policies and priorities are created together with people representing all parts of society. Typically, consultations are paper based and are quite often skewed. The great thing about this is that I can already see the difference that doing community led policing plans through citizens’ assemblies is having in terms of conversations that are taking place and inputs I have been receiving to inform my police and crime plan.”
Assembly members hear information from expert speakers from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC), Cheshire Constabulary and victim support services commissioned by the PCC; ask questions and deliberate with one another, before reaching recommendations on what they think should be done. Citizens’ assemblies put the trade-offs faced by decision-makers in front of members of the public and ask them to arrive at workable recommendations.
Governments and parliaments around the world are increasingly using citizens’ assemblies in their work. The UK Parliament commissioned its first citizens’ assembly, the Citizens’ Assembly on Social Care, in 2018.
Mr Price will shortly be consulting the public on his draft police and crime plan before publishing it in March.