Agenda and minutes

Safer Neighbourhood Board - Thursday, 10th October, 2019 7.00 pm

Venue: Conference Room, Civic Centre, Silver Street, Enfield, EN1 3XA. View directions

Items
No. Item

239.

WELCOME & INTRODUCTIONS

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

 

Discussions regarding item:7-Examination of Crime Statistics, were taken first on the agenda but for the interests of clarity the minutes are shown in the agenda order.

 

240.

APOLOGIES

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Eddie Fraser, Harry Landsman and Alok Agrawal. Apologies for lateness from Adrian Bishop-Laggett.

 

241.

CHAIRS FEEDBACK

Tim Fellows (Chair) to present.

 

Feedback also to be provided by:

·         Stop & Search monitoring group

·         CCTV Monitoring group

Minutes:

This has been a quiet quarter for meetings as the summer always is.

 

The meetings that the Chair has participated in this period are: Safer & Stronger Communities Board, Chaired the Hate Crime Case Management Panel twice and attended the Hate Crime Executive meeting.

 

The Chair is chasing an update on the part time police post to engage and develop the Neighbourhood Watch across the borough. The police were unable to confirm at the meeting whether this post had been recruited to.

 

The Safer Neighbourhood Funding Applications were submitted to MOPAC and all but one of the projects was agreed by them at the end of August. However, MOPAC have requested a contract is signed for this funding, including insurance for project failure. SNB’s across London have not been prepared to sign this. MOPAC are currently looking for a way forward consequently no funding has been received at this stage.

 

The Stop & Search group provided feedback, there are 7/8 members meeting every 6 weeks at Edmonton police station. Two members meet at 6:30 with 2 officers to go through footage from the body worn cameras. At 7:30 they are joined by the remaining members to go through police reports chosen randomly by them. The group provide a critical friend approach.

 

The CCTV Monitoring Station Group has not been able to undertake any visits during the summer period.

 

242.

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING pdf icon PDF 135 KB

To agree the minutes from the meeting 24 July 2019.

Minutes:

The minutes from the meeting 24 July 2019 were agreed.

 

243.

BRIEFING OF YOUTH OFFENDING UNIT pdf icon PDF 461 KB

To receive a report from Sandra Francis, Operational Manager, Community Team One, Youth Offending Unit.

Minutes:

Sandra Francis, Operational Manager, Community Team One presented this report and highlighted the following:

·         The report in the agenda pack provided an overview of the Youth Offending Unit (YOU)

·         The Crime & Disorder Act, 1998 requires local authorities to set up multi agency hubs including Police, Social Services, Education and Probation as statutory within the YOU.

·         The principle aim is to stop offending and reoffending by young people aged 11-17.

·         There are 3 teams within the YOU they are working with young people on a range of statutory court orders and out of court disposals.

·         An assessment will be made on all young people, apart from those on a Pre-court Triage this aims to identify young people in their social context, their risks and needs and concludes with an intervention plan.

·         A level of risk will be made around; likelihood of reoffending; risk of serious harm to self and others and safety and wellbeing of the young person. The levels are; low; medium; high and very high.

·         The YOU has challenging caseloads amongst the current themes are; violence, weapons, gang; drugs-local and county lines; and exploitation.

·         They have noticed an increased in trauma and mental health issues and the numbers of girls.

·         Partnership working is key to success and helping to reintegrate the young person back into the community.

·         They work with the parents to both advise and support them whilst their children are known to YOU.

 

In response to a queries:

·         If a young person were to be sentenced at 10 the YOU would work with them.

·         With regards to any problems with young people not wanting to go to Claverings due to fears for their safety, if information has been recorded which shows that they have reported that this is an unsafe location for them they will be seen off site.

·         There are over 100 young people on orders and the YOU monitor offender patterns over 12-month periods

 

Sandra was thanked for her presentation and the work the YOU do with a very difficult client group.

 

244.

BRIEFING ON SAFER SCHOOLS pdf icon PDF 339 KB

To receive a report from Inspector Paul Dwyer.

Minutes:

Inspector Paul Dwyer presented his report and highlighted the following:

·         The report in the agenda details the MPS Safer Schools Officers objectives, the key performance indicators, the structure of a BCU Youth Team and a typical day in the life of an MPS Safer Schools Officer.

·         Paul is the BCU lead for both Enfield and Haringey, there are 4 sergeants, 3 working with secondaries schools split into North, Central and South and 1 sergeant for all primary schools.

·         There are 39 PC’s, 2 of which are allocated to youth engagement and diversion and prevention, 2 PCs work with the volunteer Police cadets which is the main diversion for the MPS.

·         The police cadets have higher than average numbers of BME and vulnerable young people.

·         All secondary schools have a named PC, each PC will have around 5-6 schools assigned to them, with 1 main school. The PC will be expected to know the Head teacher, the senior leadership team and the students and be highly visible in the school.

·         There is one PC allocated to the Pupil Referral Unit.

·         Paul has been in post since January and has met all secondary Head teachers in Enfield

·         Serious youth violence has increased, exploitation and robbery are also issues for young people. These occur across Enfield and all schools will be affected by these issues.

·         Crimes tend not to occur around the school perimeter, but around where pupils congregate 30 minutes after school finishes such as transport hubs, fast food restaurants, Enfield Town and the Hertford Road corridor.

·         It is a very small percentage of young people that cause issues

·         Officers will encourage young people to keep safe and report crimes to the safer schools’ officer, online, safeguarding or trusted leads at schools.

·         They take a multi-pronged approach balancing enforcement, listening and guiding the young person.

·         Exploitation is a big issue training is provided to school staff to raise awareness and know the signs to look out for.

·         Drugs is another problem and lots of money can be earned and this can be a motivator for some young people

·         A lot of work is done with British Transport Police around the key times 3-6pm

·         Shift patterns have changed amongst safer schools’ officers some now work till 10pm

 

Following issues were raised:

·         Concerns were raised that there had been an increase in robberies in Southgate which may be displacement from Enfield Town where there are Community Patrols. A Street watch scheme will be launched for October half term, this works in a similar way to the Community Patrol, funding has come from MOPAC and is very structured with clear guidance.

·         The police confirmed that Southgate had become an emerging hotspot as had Palmers Green. There had been an arrest in Palmers Green which had reduced robberies, sometimes the arrest of one person can have a big effect.

·         Paul talked about the knives and advised that the cadets regularly undertake knife sweeps on a Saturday. In addition to the work they do on crime prevention  ...  view the full minutes text for item 244.

245.

EXAMINATION OF CRIME STATISTICS pdf icon PDF 2 MB

Examination of crime statistics received:

·         Current and planned police operations

·         Confidence and satisfaction

·         Target establishment on CAPE’s (including staff changes, vacant posts, anticipated timelines for replacement, etc)

·         Response Times, both I & S calls in Enfield and Haringey

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Acting Superintendent Alex Kay provided an update and highlighted the following:

 

Current and planned Operations

·         There are a number of challenges to be faced; there has been an increase in the main crime types across London but more so in Enfield of some crimes.

·         Their number one priority is Serious Youth Violence and keeping people safe.

·         There is a North Area Violence Reduction Group used by Enfield and Haringey to problem solve and look at youth education and diversion.

·         Gang Activity; there is a specialised team focussing only on robbery with specialised officers that can be deployed rapidly and undertake covet policing

·         There has been funding received from the Violent Crime task force to support operations on robberies and violent crime in hotspots, this has resulted in improvements beeing seen.

·         There will be a Specialised Central Crime team in November focusing on gang activity

·         There have been changes to police shift patterns allowing police to be visible and in the right place at the right time. The late shift now ends at 11pm.

·         There are 5 unmarked Neighbourhood vehicles which will be marked police cars increasing visible presence when out and about.

·         They is a need for the police to advertise more the good work they undertake with the community, had been a whole community event in Edmonton Green which was well attended.

·         Transport Police have continued operations on the A10 with specialised traffic vehicles. On the 5th October there were 79 offences of speeding, the highest speed being 80-mph in a 40mph zone. Local people have commented that they have noticed the difference this has made.

·         Prostitution and sex workers on Fore Street is a big challenge. This involves 2 types of worker; British daytime workers often with drug addiction and eastern Europeans from late afternoon onwards. These workers are not trafficked, motivated by economic reasons often earning £4-5k per month which they send home to their families

·         The police have little capacity for outreach work on this issue. They hope to hold a community meeting in November.

·         Support is needed from the Crown Prosecution Service and the local authority to achieve a  long term solution.

·         The scheme designed for kerb crawlers instead of prosecution has the problem in Enfield that many offenders do not speak English well enough to attend the course.

 

Further comments were raised

  • This is a huge issue in the area.

·         Condoms are left by the kerb which is a public health hazard as well as distressing for residents.

·         There is an outreach worker from the Terrance Higgins Trust who is employed to work with many different groups, sex workers being one of them. However, the emphasis of their work is on sexual health

 

Confidence & Satisfaction

·         Alex was disappointed by the figures which were included as part of the agenda pack and there is clearly more work for the police to do. Police visibility is key and the changes to the shift patterns the neighbourhood cars and the community events held should have an  ...  view the full minutes text for item 245.

246.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Minutes:

Dionne John, Southgate Cape Chair advised that she has recently started Business Watch in Southgate. This has now been extended to Highlands and Cockfosters Wards and has approximately 150 businesses signed up. All but 3 businesses in Southgate have signed up.

 

This involved use of the WhatsApp application where business post and share information on crime. Local police officers are also part of this and post on this network as are officers from the Community Safety Unit and youth services.

 

An example was given of success where a stolen credit card was posted on the network and when an attempt was made to use this again this was prevented, and the card retained.

 

The businesses that were part of this were both small and large businesses and some businesses in Southgate are already part of the Community Help Point Scheme.

 

This has been very good for community cohesion, has encouraged reporting and makes business feel closer to local police officers as there is daily communication.

 

If any other CAPE chairs are interested in rolling out this scheme please contact Dionne. A co-ordinator is needed to set up the scheme. However once this is up and running the maintenance is minimal.

 

A member of the audience expressed disappointment and frustration that problems on the A10 are regularly raised however the same instances occur on the A406(from the Great Cambridge to Pinkham Way) and Telford Road and this does not receive the same attention.

 

247.

DATES OF FUTURE MEETINGS

To note the dates of future meetings as follows:

 

Thursday 16 January 2020, 7pm

Thursday 23 April 2020, 7pm

 

Minutes:

Following a request from the police it was agreed that future meetings of the Safer Neighbourhood Board will commence at 6:30pm.