Warwickshire Police & Crime Panel: Rugby cannabis factory response 'not good enough'

Warwickshire’s Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) vowed to follow up allegations that a Rugby landlord who discovered her property was being used as a cannabis factory had been left without support.

The matter was raised by the leader of Rugby Borough Councillor, former police officer Councillor Derek Poole (Con, Wolston & the Lawfords), who said he had been required to intervene.

Cllr Poole sits on the Warwickshire Police & Crime Panel, a group of councillors which also includes two non-elected independent members that monitors and makes recommendations on the work of PCC Philip Seccombe and his office.

He passed comment on efforts to ensure effective policing in the county, including the Empower People programme, “implemented to create a new operating model for the force”, launched on April 24 this year.

“This is no slight on the commissioner, I am sorry but I cannot agree with April 24 when the new all-singing and dancing method came out,” said Cllr Poole.

“Personally, I don’t think that has worked.

“Effective policing, I don’t think that has worked in my ward and in my borough.

“One instance, on October 1 a lady who rents out a property found it had been turned into a cannabis factory. It had been refurbished with a new bathroom, kitchen and so on, she went to take some spare keys and it had been turned into a cannabis factory.

“She reported it on October 1. The police turned up on October 2, came and took away the cannabis plants, fair enough, but that police officer still had not been back to the complainant six weeks later to issue a crime number so she could claim on the insurance.

“Nextdoor had CCTV of the perpetrators with their vehicles, bringing in the equipment to grow the cannabis plants, and still no one has been.

“I got involved and rang the inspector but to this day I don’t know whether the police officer has been back. To me, as an ex-police officer, it is not effective policing.”

Mr Seccombe replied: “That is not good enough, I agree with you.

“I will raise it with the chief constable as part of the holding to account and we will see if we can make sure victims are treated better and kept informed. That is what I expect to be done so this is not good practice from that particular officer.”

The report said that a six-month review of the Empower People programme had been scheduled for discussion at a meeting of the Governance and Performance Board in December.

The place and technology elements of the Empower programme “continue to be progressed by the force and are monitored and scrutinised" by the PCC's office.