Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Apologies had been received from Sheila Stacey, Pat Jackson, Eddie Fraser, Tracey Anang and Simone Strauss.

Tim Fellows (Chair) to present.

Feedback also to be provided by:

·         Stop & Search monitoring group

·         CCTV Monitoring group

This has been a quiet period as far as the Chair’s role is concerned, mostly due to Purdah and the Christmas holidays.

In October the Vice Chair attended the LCP2 meeting in place of the Chair and will again cover at next week’s meeting.

The Chair spoke at the Hate Crime Conference in Community House on the 16^th October and attended the SNB Chairs Forum meeting at city Hall on the 4^th November.

The Chair was unable to attend the Safer & Stronger Communities Board on the 2^nd January as was on annual leave.

The SNB grant funding has finally been signed off and all of the projects bar one and began to get their funding and start on the work. As this is the grant for 1^st April 2019 there will have to be some tinkering with their activities and a reasonable time in which to complete their projects.

The Stop & Search group is in a transition period as they have now joined with Haringey. They had a meeting last night. The group will no longer view body worn camera footage. This is a change across the Met as a whole as considered against the civil rights of the person being stopped.

The police have an understanding that Haringey and Enfield are very different boroughs. Haringey are not up and running in the same way as Enfield. The dedicated officers are now back in place to support and the meeting was very positive. All meetings will have an agenda in future.

The CCTV group did not have much to report, there was one visit in November and will be another one soon.

To agree the minutes from the meeting 10 October 2019.

The minutes of the meeting 10 October 2019 were agreed.

PC Tom Lee from MPS Cyber Crime unit will be speaking about online fraud, cyber crime, and how to stay safe online.

PC Tom Lee, from Cyber Unit went through a presentation and highlighted the following:

·         The Cyber crime unit has 200 staff; 190 working in pursuit and 10 working in prevention. They work to design out fraud enablers and to raise awareness.

·         From June 2018-2019 looking at crime figures they were 4.8 million crimes of cybercrime(1m) and fraud (3.8m) against 6.3 million of all other crime types.

·         In the UK you are 20 times more likely to be defrauded than robbed. If you are over 65 years old, you are more likely 3 times more likely to be defrauded than burgled.

·         Action Fraud is the national reporting line for all fraud and cyber crimes to be reported either online at www.actionfraud.police.uk or by telephone on 0300 123 2040.

·         In Enfield for 2018-19 there were 1680 reported crimes to Action Fraud total £5,912,345 with victims losing on average £3,519. It should be noted however that these figures include businesses and have not been verified for anomalies or mistakes in reporting.

·         Monthly reports for Enfield will be provided in future, these figures will have been verified and will be sent out to SNB members through Susan O’Connell.

·         Fraud can be reduced by raising awareness of actions both individuals and businesses can take.

·         Fraudsters use social engineering methods:

1.    Spoofing (masquerading/ disguising by changing telephone no and email but purporting to come from a genuine source).

2.    Phising (fraudulent email)

3.    Smishing (fraudulent text)

4.    Vishing (fraudulent phone calls)

·         Examples were given of recent frauds such as emails from amazon, DVLC TV Licence and HMRC offering refunds and also in the case of HMRC demanding payment.

·         The link within these will go to a fake website which appears like the original. Any links should never be clicked on.

·         Any reference to unusual activity, requests for verification, issue with accounts, problems with routers are typical examples of information requested.

·         Smart phones are unable to separate genuine and fake calls and texts so will appear on phone in the same way they would had they come from the genuine originator.

·         The advice is always to question any requests, challenge all details and remember that phone numbers and emails are not proof of identity

·         Scam phone calls, the fraudsters may have been able to obtain some of your details beforehand, sound effects will also be used to add authenticity and you will often be put under pressure to provide details. These is all used to manipulate the intended victim.

·         The top 6 frauds in Enfield are:

1.    Advance Fee (involves payment in advance for goods, services and/or financial gains that do not materialise)

2.    Courier Fraud (involves fraudsters cold calling you pretending to be from the police or fraud department. They claim they are conducting an investigation or say your account is at risk)

3.    Software fraud (fraudsters cold call you claiming there are problems with your computer, and they can help you solve them)

4.    Investment fraud (fraudsters will persuade you to invest in all kinds  ...  view the full minutes text for item 410.

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

Chief Inspector Alex Kay presented his report and highlighted the following:

·         The stats had been presented in a new format and provided by the police. These show where Enfield sits in relation to other London boroughs to provide a wider context.

·         A new Superintendent Chris Jones is now in place and he has changed the structure within the BCU. There used to be an Inspector for Enfield, an Inspector for Haringey and an inspector covering both boroughs. The change now is to dedicated teams in both boroughs. Enfield has an inspector for Community (Debbie Kneebone-will be Erica Crawshaw when she returns from maternity leave) and an Inspector for schools Chris Byrne with the expectation of increased joined working between these areas.

·         Issues for the North Area (Enfield) are robberies (2^nd in London) and violent offences (half of all of these are linked to robberies). There is a team of 12 officers (across both boroughs) patrolling hotspots to drive down robberies.

·         The largest number of victims of robbery are school children. School children will usually have technology on them making them more vulnerable to robbery. Love my doorstep have been working with safer schools’ officers; school children are being encouraged to think about safer routes home.

·         There is also some central support around violence and gangs and some improvement has been seen on this.

·         Enfield has 2 dedicated community support officers focussing on burglary prevention.

·         The main emphasis at present is on burglary and robbery.

·         Examples of some recent operations and general updates was provided:

o   In Lower Edmonton, £17.5k funding had been received to work with vulnerable young people at Edmonton Eagles boxing club, this will also help in building relationships with the police A warrant had been issued for drugs before Christmas and 3 dogs had been rescued.

o   Edmonton Green 989 packets of illegal cigarettes seized in a successful police operation

o   In Enfield Town there is a focus on pick pocketing and cashpoints

o   Upper Edmonton, there is a focus on prostitution involving partnership working with the local authority seeking longer term solutions

o   Southgate, there is a focus on robberies around Southgate Circus and the college

o   Cockfosters, there is a focus on burglary in Hadley Wood with officers working till 4am

o   Southbury, there has been a focus on the A10, ASB and taking kitchen knives off retail display. A member raised concerns of burglary particularly on roads that back onto parks and felt that this should also be a focus.

o   Southgate Green, there has been 2 very serious incidents recently which has caused a great deal of concern and fear in the community.

·         This led to a wider discussion on how partner messages are received and the importance of these. CI Kay will raise this at the response team meeting next week.

·         Discussions held around how communication could be used through various channels that could provide reassure such as through social media, Love Your doorstep, Twitter, OWL (once rolled out in Enfield)  ...  view the full minutes text for item 411.

The Chair was very pleased to note the recent announcement that cameras will be placed on the A10. The full details as to where and when and what type of cameras are still to be announced.

The next meeting of the Safer Neighbourhood Board is the Annual General Meeting where there will be roles to be elected to, members were asked to consider putting themselves forward for these roles. Susan O’Connell will be sending an email out with details in February.

To note the date of the next meeting as follows:

·         Thursday 23 April 2020, 6:30pm

The date of the next meeting was noted.