I was thrilled to welcome the Prime Minister Boris Johnson along with Home Secretary Priti Patel to Guildford this week to launch the Beating Crime Plan (https://www.gov.uk/govern.../publications/beating-crime-plan). The Prime Minister and Home Secretary met with Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey Lisa Townsend and Chief Constable of Surrey Police Gavin Stephens.
While Surrey is a safe county, the mixture of issues we face in Guildford, Cranleigh and our villages presents challenges. Surrey Police conducted a recent survey into violence against women and girls and found it was hugely underreported - we need to encourage reporting with an integrated and sympathetic process. We know from the Sarah Everard case that these incidents can be gateways to even more serious crime.
We also know the problems we have with anti-social behaviour and burglary, where we need dedicated points of contact. More modern forms of crime like cuckooing and county lines are issues we need to protect our children and young people against by giving them the tools they need and the confidence in the police to deal with perpetrators.
Progress has been made - we are halfway to recruiting 20,000 more police officers, which is great news but until we get there, our police officers and staff remain stretched. So I'd like to thank them in the same way we thank teachers and NHS staff for everything they continue to do and have done to keep us safe, particularly over the past 18 months but also for very many years.