Antisocial behaviour in crime hotspots has reduced between 30 and 50 per cent in the last six months as a result of Operation Hotspot, according to Hertfordshire's Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Jonathan Ash-Edwards.

A meeting of Hertfordshire's Police and Crime Panel was held last week, as Mr Ash-Edwards outlined the six main priorities in his upcoming Police and Crime Plan.

The meeting, held at East Herts District Council offices on Thursday, November 21, was attended by district councillors from across the county.

Mr Ash-Edwards was elected PCC in July and said many of the priorities set out in his Police and Crime Plan, which PCCs have statutory duty to create, would mirror the promises he made in his election campaign.

Mr Ash-Edwards said: "My goal is for it to be a strategic document that is very focused in terms of the impact we're trying to have and we obviously have to cover a broad range of issues, but we'll have some clarity about where we're trying to move the dialogue."

He added that the document would give a framework for councillors to hold the PCC's office to account and it would be similar in style to other PCCs' plans issued in Devon & Cornwall, Lancashire and Essex constabularies.

Mr Ash-Edwards said: "So in terms of priorities, [there are] six which broadly follow the priorities I set out in the election, my mandate. So the first is preventing terror and crime… that for me is the most important thing that we can do – to stop people being victims of crime in the first place, is what we should be aiming for. It's far better to have fewer victims than lots of happy victims, and so prevention is better than cure and deterring criminality in Hertfordshire is where we need to be.

"Second priority area is around strengthening local policing. You probably expect me to be talking about that given some of the previous conversations that we've had… So, the real priority for me is around visibility, visibility with a purpose.

"How do we build on the fact we've got more police officers than before? That's where it needs to be translated into that effective visibility in communities.

"But also, how do we help policing in terms of performance and impact? And there's actually lots of things we can do to address some of these. … sometimes it's around technology, sometimes it's around national systems, there are things we can do to unlock some of those burdens, some will require investment, some are around the approach and priorities we have…

"The third area is a tougher approach on neighbourhood crime and antisocial behaviour. It comes out really strongly from the public consultation and the business survey. The thing that drives people's feelings of how safe they are is the stuff that happens on their doorstep, the shoplifting they see when they're in the town centre, the antisocial behaviour in their local community, whether it's a neighbourhood crime or vehicle theft, whatever it might be. There's a lot of work to do for those rural communities…

"Our work on Operation Hotspot shows that you can make a really important difference in terms of making a rigorous approach, focusing on the hotspots, making sure that there is a strong response to antisocial behaviour. In some of those hotspot areas, we are seeing 30, 40 and 50 per cent falls in just the last six months, so I think that demonstrates that it is possible.

"The fourth area is disrupting high harm criminality to protect vulnerable people. Probably one of the larger sections of the plan. I'm very much focusing on the critical things of how do we make vulnerable people in our community safer.

"That's where the critical area around violence against women and girls will sit, but also, a significant area around children and young people, whether that's about exploitation, missing people… and we've got a lot to do on those areas, also areas like fraud…

"The fifth area is the broader criminal justice area, how can we get more offenders brought to justice. You'll see from the [HMICFRS] inspection report last time – it's not a thing unique to Hertfordshire, it's a national trend – detection rates have fallen over many, many years. We need to look where we can make improvements there…

"And, the sixth area is quite a broad area around improving service to the public. It came down quite strongly in the inspection report that that's something we need to focus on, also there's a lot of opportunity around technology in particular, but also a whole range of areas of how can we ensure that when people need policing they get a good response, that actually we help police officers to deliver that response consistently and people can have confidence in the standards of policing we would all expect."