The Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) for Essex is asking county residents for their views on funding plans for Essex Police and Essex County Fire & Rescue Service.
To hear those views in maintaining or improving the current strength and ability of both services, all residents, businesses and people who work or travel in any Essex district are asked to complete the PFCC Precept Survey for the financial year 2026/27.
This survey is now open and takes about four minutes to complete.
You can complete the survey here: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/PFCCSurvey26-27/
Your views will then feed into the Essex Police and Essex County Fire & Rescue funding process for the financial year 2026/27, allowing the Commissioner to communicate your thoughts to partners, including the Government.
The survey started on Monday 20th October 2025 and run for four weeks until Monday 17th November 2025. The survey may be extended for two weeks.
Results will be analysed to help inform discussions at the Police, Fire and Crime Panel meeting on Thursday, 4th December, 2025.
Roger Hirst, Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, said: “This is your chance to have your say, your views matter.
“With your support we have invested in Essex Police by placing more officers in your communities and we want to make sure those officers are in a position to get crime down.
“Since 2016 we have increased the number of officers in Essex Police by 905 making the service the largest it has ever been. In May, we recruited 74 officers to new Neighbourhood Policing Teams, now on patrol in your communities. There are now more officers than ever before, visible on the streets of your cities, towns and villages.
“Crime is falling, all crime is down 4.3% in the 12 months to September 2025 – that’s 6,370 fewer Essex people who this year have to deal with the distressing, and at times devastating, consequences of crime.
“Since the high point of recorded crime in 2019, crime has fallen by 16.5%. Since 2019, knife crime has reduced by 24% and anti-social behaviour has dropped significantly in key hotspot areas.
“But we want to do more, we want fewer people to be impacted by crime.
“As our new officers learn their roles, gain experience and develop further skills, we want to drive crime further down. My ambition is to bring crime down by 40% from its high and we need your support to do this. As our new officers become more experienced and gain additional skills, we will be able to achieve more, but our costs will also increase.
“It is vital we maintain our investment in crime prevention and get more visible police in your communities, as well as investigating crimes and bringing offenders to justice. This is how we will get crime down.
“Our plans are to ensure that vulnerable people are protected from harm. That is a job for both Police and the Fire & Rescue Service. Both services are facing the impact of high levels of inflation over the last few years, both on goods and services and on pay awards.
“We also need to prevent fires and road traffic collisions and make sure high-rise buildings are protected.
“Since 2019, fire-related injuries have fallen by 13.6% and accidental house fires by 13.3%, as Essex County Fire and Rescue Service has continued to focus on prevention, partnership working and community safety across our county. In 2024/25, the Service attended nearly 17,000 incidents – an 11% increase compared to 2019 – reflecting how the service has responded to a wider range of emergencies and strengthened its partnership with the health service.
“But we want to do more, we want to prevent more fires and save more lives as well as delivering an effective response if a fire does happen. We want to keep up this work helping our fire and rescue service to manage risk across Essex and help prevent harm in our communities.
“We will continue to make both Essex Police and Essex County Fire & Rescue Service more efficient. Over the past four years Essex Police has saved £50.2m through efficiencies and Essex County Fire and Rescue Service has saved £6.4m through efficiencies.
“We want to keep crime falling, prevent more fires and save lives. To do this we must maintain and invest in the strength of Essex Police and Essex County Fire and Rescue Service. Those are our plans, but we would like to know your thoughts.
“Please take the time to complete this short survey, which takes about five minutes to complete, and tell us what you think. Your views matter.”