Surrey Police has made amazing strides over the last two years in tackling those crimes you’ve told me are important to you. 

Burglary and vehicle crime is falling, police teams have been cracking down on anti-social behaviour hot-spots and charges for shoplifting have risen by over 400%. 

This is fantastic news but the Chief Constable has told me he wants to do even more to make our towns and communities feel safer for residents. I want to support him in that quest, but we need your help.  

I want to hear your views in our brief survey on whether you agree with my proposal to pay a little extra on your council tax bill over the coming year to support our brilliant policing teams. 

One of my key tasks as Commissioner is to set the Surrey Police budget which includes determining the level of council tax charged to residents for policing in the county. 

The Government sets a cap for the maximum increase in council tax, although they assume in their police funding announcements that all PCCs will increase to the maximum limit. At the moment we are waiting to hear what that limit will be, but we anticipate it is likely to be in line with last year at £14 for an average Band D property. This equates to just over £1 a month and is what I am basing this year's survey on.

Despite repeated lobbying to Government to get a fairer share of police grant funding, Surrey Police remains one of the most poorly funded forces in the country. Every pound of precept amounts to an extra half-a-million pounds in the policing budget and I am afraid that an increase of some kind will be needed to ensure drastic cuts to our workforce can be avoided. 

Your money will go towards not only giving the Chief Constable the resources to maintain our level of service but to also continue the impressive results he has achieved since taking up the role two years ago.

The number of charges across the board has more than doubled and 40% more crimes have been solved. Burglary rates have reduced by 14% over the last year while vehicle crime is down by 36%. The number of charges for rape has doubled while there has been a 465% rise in charges for shoplifting to combat the growing trend of retail crime.

This has all been made possible by the contributions you, the Surrey public, make through your council tax contributions. 

But there is always more to do. I want to continue tackling anti-social behaviour and drug related crime which can cause misery for our communities and to make sure we invest in those fantastic services in the county that provide truly life-changing support to victims of crime in Surrey. Over the last year our policing teams have been successfully carrying out hot-spot policing in areas where ASB has been an issue and working with our partners on ‘Clear Hold Build’ projects in targeted areas in an effort to rid communities of ongoing crime. 

We need more of this but in order to maintain this momentum, protect victims and take the fight to the criminals, we desperately need funding to ensure all the hard work over the last two years isn’t undone.   

Please do take a couple of minutes to fill in our brief survey below and let me know whether you would be willing to pay a little extra to support our policing teams and make our communities safer over the coming year.

Thank you.

Lisa Townsend

Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey