County Durham and Darlington Police and Crime Commissioner Joy Allen has unveiled her Annual Report 2025/26, highlighting sweeping progress against her pledges to better support victims, tackle the public’s top priorities and prevent crime.
Her Annual Report, presented at a meeting of the Police and Crime Panel today earlier this week, showcased the far-reaching impact of her increased investment, focus on partnership working and relentless scrutiny of policing and the wider criminal justice system.
The report details the key milestones achieved against her Police, Crime and Justice Plan priorities and how she has continued to strengthen local visible policing in the way communities have asked.
Communities across the force area benefitted from 26 extra neighbourhood officers in 2025/26 thanks to the roll-out of the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee while the PCC secured an additional £1m for targeted hotspot policing, delivering 19,519 extra patrol hours in communities with long-standing issues of crime, anti-social behaviour (ASB) and serious violence.
The public also received an improved service when they called the force control room, with 94.4% of 999 calls answered within ten seconds across the year. This is almost five percentage points above the national service level.
Meanwhile, the PCC has been working tirelessly locally and nationally to save lives on the UK’s roads.
Throughout the year, the PCC funded road safety education for more than 5,000 young people and expanded her flagship Park Safe scheme to 13 schools, utilising a Road Harm Index to help identify locations where the risk of serious harm is greatest.
Nationally, she continued to lobby the Government for stronger action on drink and drug driving, better protection for young drivers and other changes designed to spare families the agony of losing loved ones on the roads.
In her ambition to improve rural safety, the PCC sustained funding to continue the work of Rural Watch coordinators until 2027 and expanded rural communications capability to 20 dedicated WhatsApp devices while funding new security equipment in villages such as Weardale and Consett to deter criminality.
And in protecting women and girls from violence, the PCC maintained investment in specialist support, prevention and scrutiny, supporting the reopening of the improved Sexual Assault Referral Centre and making progress towards dedicated women’s justice services while achieving a 64% increase in Domestic Violence Protection Orders.
Victims remain central to the PCC’s work and alongside supporting more than 4,500 victims through her dedicated Victim Care and Mentor Service and training more than 900 officers and staff in victim’s rights, she continued to fund practical solutions to increase the delivery of timely information and support to victims, investing £530k in the Salesforce Victim Journey and My Durham Portal.
Police and Crime Commissioner Joy Allen said: “This report highlights the progress that can be made when victims and communities are placed at the heart of decision-making.
“Safer communities are about people talking openly and honestly about their concerns, and agencies working and acting on these issues to build meaningful solutions. I am proud of what we have been able to achieve together.
“Public money must be focused on the priorities that matter to local people. This is why, throughout the year, you will see bolder measures to crack down on the nuisances and serious criminality bringing misery to our communities in County Durham and Darlington and a greater policing presence where it is urgently needed. It is also why you will see more preventative programmes designed to steer young people away from crime and serious violence at the first opportunity and advanced rehabilitation and treatment pathways to support recovery and reduce reoffending when criminality is entrenched.
“Demand for policing, particularly visible patrols in our communities, is increasing all the time. I will continue to work with local MPs and partners to urge this government to provide the funding necessary for 120 police officers, which would take us back to the number we had in 2010. Some forces now have many more than they had in 2010 while some, like Durham, appear to have been forgotten.
“For as long as I have the privilege of serving as Police and Crime Commissioner, I will continue to champion victims, stand up for our communities, scrutinise performance, challenge where improvement is needed and fight for the resources our police service needs. This is what every victim and our communities deserve.”
