00:00Good afternoon. At midnight on Thursday we were aware of an altercation outside of our house when someone threw a bottle at our house.
00:09What then happened was a young lady was under the threat of domestic abuse.
00:15Between my wife and I we were able to call 999 and bring her into our house.
00:20But she was in a very stressed position, very upset, very ill.
00:25It took just over two hours for the police to turn up to an emergency call.
00:32At this time the young lady, unable to stop her, she self-harmed in our house, stabbed herself.
00:39We managed to get her outside. We called 999, 111 a number of times.
00:44She collapsed, convulsed and stopped breathing before the police arrived.
00:49I really want to say that the police officer who passed us before said,
00:53I'm very sorry, I'm on another call, I can't stop, did save her life.
00:57The credit to the Lancashire Police and all of the blue light services is astonishing.
01:02I work with the NHS. I totally respect the blue light services.
01:06But for God's sake, what would you do locally to make sure we have the effective blue light services we need?
01:14A two hour wait for a young lady aged 21 who was in considerable danger and could have died that evening is not acceptable.
01:22And she did die, she stopped breathing, her heart had stopped, the police officer brought her back.
01:27What would I ask ladies and gentlemen, would you do locally to make sure we have those blue light services effectively?
01:33Thank you.
01:45So in all of those domestic abuse and mental health aspects as well,
01:53the Liberal Democrats want to see specific trained people in those areas so that they can respond.
02:01So the handover of those with mental health issues, so there is quicker response to domestic abuse.
02:09Because when it kicks off, and I've seen it first hand down the street where I was,
02:14and I've got to say I've not seen quite so many police cars in one area.
02:20There was kind of almost a comical aspect to it.
02:25Fortunately no one was harmed, no one's life was endangered in the circumstance you've just explained, sir.
02:32But I think that has to be the case, where you have trained personnel within those blue light services who respond and prioritise those types of incidents.
02:44Andrew, you're the obvious person for me to come to first, which is why I didn't turn around.
02:50Well first of all, thank you, sir, for the way that you handled that situation.
02:56That lady obviously owes an awful lot of why she's still here to you, and you should be proud of that.
03:02And thank you for taking the time to thank the individual police officer for what they did.
03:06Because quite often in these circumstances, the work of the individual officers, the paramedic goes amiss.
03:12And actually, some of these officers, I've had the privilege for the last three years of attending the Police Bravery Awards,
03:18and the bravery of officers and the sacrifices they make are unbelievable.
03:22Local based policing for response times is absolutely critically important.
03:27For the three years I was Police and Crime Commissioner, we increased significantly the number of officers in the area, district, neighbourhood and response teams.
03:37So there were a number of areas of Lancashire that were operating what was called the hybrid model,
03:43which basically meant there weren't enough officers in effectively what are the smaller and less demand areas for policing.
03:50We are privileged to be living and talking about Fylde, which has some of the lowest crime rates in Lancashire.
03:58However, that does not mean that Fylde does not deserve the basics and does not pay for, through the precept, the basics of policing services.
04:08And they were not there in place.
04:10So making sure there was an open police station that people can go to,
04:13but equally making sure that a significantly increased number of officers were based from Kirkham,
04:18was absolutely critically part of that work that I did as Police and Crime Commissioner.
04:23Two hours is not an acceptable wait time in those circumstances.
04:27Having been Police and Crime Commissioner for three years, I have learned the hard way that it is not right to take judgment on individual cases,
04:36because until you go away and look at it and want to know what else the police were dealing with at that moment in time,
04:42it is very difficult to provide a specific answer to the case.
04:45But for me, local policing in each of the districts of Lancashire has been something that I have invested millions in already as Police and Crime Commissioner
04:54and is something I would continue to advocate.
04:56All of the main parties have pledged more police officers in their manifestos,
05:00and I would continue to advocate that that goes towards making sure that response times are cut by local police officers.
05:08Tom, to you.
05:14First of all, I was talking earlier about it being on everyone to make society better,
05:19and that is a great example of being presented with a very difficult choice,
05:24a very difficult situation, and doing the right thing.
05:29It is very easy sometimes to just lock your doors and hope the problem passes on by, so thank you very much.
05:38I was talking even more recently this evening about people being forced into a number of bad choices and not being able to make a good one.
05:49Police response comes down to having enough police officers to respond, first of all,
05:54and that is why Labour is planning to have 13,000 more police officers and policing community support officers,
06:01because we need more people out there to answer those calls.
06:06When it comes to domestic violence, what we need is more specialists.
06:10Too often it is an area that is neglected.
06:13Too often, frankly, violence against women especially is an area that is too often neglected, not just in cases of domestic violence.
06:22So we are going to have domestic violence specialists in police call centres
06:27so that they can get across those calls and make sure that they are being given the clarity they need.
06:34It goes further, though. It goes to making sure that those who perpetrate domestic violence are dealt with properly.
06:41We are going to have specialist units that will do that when we have more officers.
06:46And it is also about making sure that we are prosecuting these cases effectively as well,
06:52because too often perpetrators, when they are brought into a courtroom, don't see the inside of a cell, and that has to stop.
06:59We need to do more to protect women in our society.
07:04I also believe that there needs to be training on the people that actually take the call.
07:11They need to be trained. They need to know how to triage correctly.
07:15It is no good sending an ambulance to a repeat offender who keeps calling five times a day,
07:21and then nobody can get an ambulance to somebody who really needs it.
07:24We need more rapid response. We need community policing.
07:29But training needs to come from those people that are actually on the phone,
07:33who can realise that it is an emergency, and get that ambulance and the police there.
07:39It is no good being in a list, waiting, or while we have gone to see the chap who has cut his finger,
07:45because that does happen. My friend is a paramedic, and it is absolutely frustrating.
07:50So I would definitely put more training into people that are going to triage,
07:54community policing, so they can get there on time, and more rapid response.
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