Attendance by police representatives at community councils is to undergo a rethink amid officers turning up at less than seven per cent of the meetings over a three month period.
Figures revealed to Stirling Council’s public safety committee recently showed that out of 61 community council meetings held between April and June this year across the authority’s area, police submitted reports to all 61 – but showed up in person at just four.
Now Forth and Endrick ward is to undergo a trial period allowing officers to report to the community councils in clusters, with other wards set to see the same system introduced if it is deemed successful.
Stirling police area commander, Chief Inspector Sarah McArthur said: “We are in the process of consulting the affected community councils regarding a change in community council reports.
“We have 37 community councils in the area which all require separate reports and are committed to appropriate engagement at community councils – but we’ve got to balance how much time we spend in our communities and actually doing the work with attending meetings.
“In looking at that issue we have with resources and challenges and getting things done within the community, that’s why we started looking at the community council meetings and trying to see what would be the most effective and efficient mode for doing that. We want to maximise the amount of time officers spend on the street and also strike a balance with them being present at meetings when required.
“There’s been a consultation period between the community councils and ourselves and it’s been decided that the trial is to take place just for one ward just to see if that’s something that does work – and if it works then we’ll push it out into the other areas.
“It’s been decided the trial will take place for Forth and Endrick ward so there’s natural clusters within that area and it seemed like a sensible option because we’ve had a vacant community officer post in there for a period of time [to be filled from November]. There will be two reports for Forth and Endrick and probably based on date range when the community councils are coming up, not based on the geographical area.
“Obviously we will monitor it and we will see how that works for everybody involved, but an email was sent to elected members for Forth and Endrick ward and at present there’s not been any issues presented about the potential clusters. It seems like everyone’s quite positive about this change.
“We won’t be at every single meeting, but we will always do the report. We’re not stepping away from the community councils but looking to make more appropriate use of our resources to better serve our communities involved.”
Councillor Gerry McGarvey, Labour member for Forth and Endrick ward, said the expectation for community officers to engage with community councils and attend meetings was “seriously high” and “not humanly possible in my opinion”.
Forth and Endrick ward Conservative councillor Martin Earl said: “There might be a need for a different approach to be taken in the urban area to the rural area because they’re very different beasts.
“Between the two rural wards we’ve got 21 of the 37 community councils so the way you cluster that and manage your reporting to that is probably going to have to be different to an urban ward where there might be one or two community councils located in that ward.
“But I think the cluster reporting is a good idea because no one lives and works in isolation and getting that wider perspective is useful as well for the community councils.”
He suggested attendance of community officers could be arranged if a particular issue or set of issues arose.
Conservative committee member Councillor Bryan Flannagan said police attendance at community council meetings was “certainly the lowest I’ve seen for a long time” and suggested most community councils were “ideal forums” when police were appealing for help with information about a crime, and a forum where people may feel more comfortable speaking to them about it.
CI McArthur said while police could see those benefits and it was a “fair point”, having more time to be out in the community could have a similar results.
Attendance by local officers at community council meetings has long been a talking point for some Stirling councillors.
In February 2021, during a Stirling Council committee meeting, police were told if your granny could manage to communicate online during the pandemic so should they.
In 2022, of 78 community council meetings scheduled across the area between January and March of that year, community police officers attended 12, with 30 meetings being held virtually and 74 police reports being submitted.
And of 75 community council meetings held across the Stirling area between October and December 2023, police attended only 10 and submitted 70 reports.