Agenda for Crime Scrutiny Panel on Thursday, 22nd March, 2018, 7.30 pm

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Room 1, Civic Centre, Silver Street, Enfield, EN1 3XA. View directions

Contact: Stacey Gilmour - email:  stacey.gilmour@enfield.gov.uk 

Items
No. Item

538.

WELCOME & APOLOGIES

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed all attendees to the meeting. Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Sarah Doyle and Doris Jiagge and from the Parent Engagement Panel Representative Askin Erozkal.

 

The Chair, Councillor Smith advised that he would have to leave the meeting slightly early to attend the Council Cabinet Meeting. The Vice-Chair Councillor Lappage would take over as Chair for the remainder of the meeting.

539.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members of the Council are invited to identify any disclosable pecuniary, other pecuniary or non-pecuniary interests relevant to items on the agenda.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

540.

SSCB PARTNERSHIP PLAN AND STRATEGIC PRIORITIES

Andrea Clemons, Head of Community Safety to provide a verbal progress update. This will include an update on the ASB- Kerb Crawling initiative.

 

Minutes:

Andrea Clemons Head of Community Safety presented an update and highlighted the following:

 

 

i)                 The Mayor’s Office for Policing & Crime (MOPAC) has now published the new Police & Crime Plan 2017-2021 for London which sets out the priorities for the safety of London.

ii)               The Priorities in Enfield’s own Partnership Plan closely reflect those of MOPAC. These are:

·       Reducing burglary and keeping people safe at home;

·       Tackling violent crime – in all its forms

·       Keeping young people safe and reducing their risks from crime;

·       Promoting cohesion and tackling hate crime;

·       Dealing with anti-social behaviour.

iii)              Having been reviewed by the Safe & Stronger Community Board it has been agreed that Enfield will retain these same priorities going forward. This has been reported to MOPAC and it has been indicated that we will be achieving full spend against our projects. Any small underspend will be re-profiled.

 

iv)             Enfield currently received just over £500k per year in funding from the Mayor of London’s Office. This money has been used on various projects including:

·       Purchased the services of a Gangs & Sexual Violence Worker.

·       Purchased the services of a Mentoring Officer working for St Giles Trust. This person works closely with young people through the Gangs Partnership Group route. (They have so far worked on 39 difficult cases achieving good outcomes).

·       A small fraction of the funding has also gone towards a programme for tackling young people with drugs and substances misuse. Again this has resulted in some very positive and encouraging outcomes.

·       A Youth Outreach Project has also been delivered by a third sector organisation called Oasis. This project is based in the A&E Department at North Middlesex Hospital and they deal with young people presenting at A&E who have been the victim of a violent crime.

·       Oasis also work with getting young people into employment.

·       We have also purchased two independent Domestic Violence Advocates who have received over 750 referrals over the past year. Some of the more serious cases have been taken all the way through the criminal justice system. There are also a number of the same posts but these are funded differently.

 

v)               We have also asked for an additional £20k to support some activity particularly around Fore Street, Edmonton, regarding prostitution and kerb crawling. The Police are already undertaking a lot of work in this area around this issue but Enfield Council is keen to target it from both angles. We have however asked for this enforcement action to be profiled in a slightly different way.

vi)             The £500k from MOPAC was a two year funding pot and was proposed as a two year parcel for 2017/18 and 2018/19. This is based on a successful delivery of the projects/priorities which were agreed to. MOPAC scrutinise to check that the priorities have been met and this will be looked at again in 2018/19.

 

The following questions were raised:

 

Q.Where have the 750 Domestic Violence referrals originated from?

A.  These can be self-referrals but the majority have come via  ...  view the full minutes text for item 540.

541.

SSCB PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT- MONITORING UPDATE pdf icon PDF 613 KB

To receive a report from Andrea Clemons, Head of Community Safety.

Minutes:

Andrea Clemons Head of Community Safety presented this report and highlighted the following:

 

i)                 The report analyses the five priorities identified in the borough of Enfield and discusses the performance compared to other London boroughs, over a two year period dated between 01/03/2016 to 28/02/2018.

ii)               The measures reflect the priorities in our own Partnership Plan which are:

·       Reducing burglary and keeping people safe at home;

·       Tackling violent crime – in all its forms

·       Keeping young people safe and reducing their risks from crime;

·       Promoting cohesion and tackling hate crime;

·       Dealing with anti-social behaviour.

iii)              The report demonstrates progress in crime figures against the five bulleted priorities above.

iv)             Of the 32 London boroughs, Enfield is currently 5th for Serious Youth Violence in the year ending February 2018, compared to 7th the previous year. Enfield has seen an increase in the last year of 94 offences.

v)               Knife Crime in Enfield has increased by 41.3% in the year to February 2018 compared to the previous year. London has experienced a smaller increase in Knife Crime of 25.4%. It was noted that this could be as a result of less challenge, e.g. reducing Stop and Searches may well have impacted on this increase in Knife Crime.

vi)             Information was provided on the Youth Outcomes data between 25/01/2017 to 24/01/2018.

vii)            A table was also included in the report detailing the main outcome of the offence including various referral rehabilitation orders and different intervention programmes.

viii)           During the year analysed there were 1409 offences which equated to 542 young people known to Enfield Youth Offending Unit, of which 88% were male and 12% female.

ix)             The top three offence types were Violence against the Person, Drug Offences and Theft and Handling Stolen Goods.

x)               Andrea then went through each of the further priorities in detail and provided figures, data and the proposed measures for each one.

 

The following questions and comments were raised:

 

Q.      Councillor Smith felt that the actions shown in the Main Outcome of Offence table were unclear. In particular it seemed that where an alleged crime had taken place the majority of these had resulted in ‘No Further Action’ being taken. Why was this?

 

A.       There could be many reasons for this but one example would be where there had been insufficient evidence available in order to take the case to court. It must be remembered that sometimes the figures presented do not tell the whole story.

 

Q.      Referring to the table detailed on page 5 of the report, clarification was sought as to what a Section 91 Order was?

 

A.       It was unclear as to what this was, but Andrea agreed to find out and clarify this at the next meeting. It was also felt that it would be useful to invite a member of the Youth Offending Team to a future meeting, as they would be better placed to explain some of the Youth Offending Data in more detail.

          Action: Andrea Clemons/Susan O’Connell

 

Q.      Since  ...  view the full minutes text for item 541.

542.

KNIFE CRIME pdf icon PDF 280 KB

To receive an update on police operations on knife crime from Detective Superintendent Tony Kelly.

Minutes:

RECEIVED a report from Detective Superintendent Tony Kelly on Enfield Policing Response to Knife Crime and highlighted the following:

 

i)                 Knife enabled crime and in particular knife crime injuries on victims under 25 has risen steeply across London, but perhaps none more so than in Enfield.

ii)               It should be recognised however that some of the increase in knife crime is because the Police are arresting more people with knives and taking knives off the street (when someone is arrested with a knife the Police create an offence which then impacts on the figures). Detective Superintendent felt it was important to make this observation as these arrests are positive and will result in a reduction in crime.

iii)              In order to address the knife issue Operation Bremont began running from 1 May 2017. Originally intended to be an 8 week plan it has now continued for 10 months in a number of developed iterations, as the intelligence picture has changed. It will also continue to do so until at least March 2018.

iv)             The plan seeks to address the problem under for strands; Prevent, Protect, Prepare and Pursue.

v)               From 1 May 2017 until 2 July 2017 Operation Bremont 1 saw intense focus utilising off borough resources. This was in response to the rapid growth of offences and it became apparent that the underlying cause of the majority of the offences was linked to the on and off street sales of drugs.

vi)             Tactics that were particularly successful were stop and search, weapons sweeps, and pulse patrols. There was also the conclusion of a series of school presentations.

vii)            This period saw a significant increase in injury to under 25’s, whilst overall knife crime was below that of the NPS trend.

viii)           Further information and figures were then presented in relation to Operation Bremont 2, 3 and 4 and comparisons in the data were made.

ix)             Discussions then took place regarding the Overview Partnerships Tactics. This included Enforcement, Prevention and Engagement work particularly around Schools, Licensing, ASB, Knife Wands and Knife Arches.

 

The following comments and questions were raised:

 

Councillor Lappage asked what was happening in the Police mind-set regarding publicity campaigns around stopping carrying knives etc. She felt that there needed to be a lot more work around this issue as something needed to be done urgently as the people of Enfield are beginning to feel very unsafe.

 

Detective Superintendent Kelly agreed that as a whole community engagement is not great at the moment and there definitely needs to be a lot more work and time invested in this area as it is imperative to get out and reach the people that can engage with the young people involved in crime.

 

Concerns were raised about young people often being excluded from school and sent out onto the streets where they then get into further trouble and often become involved in crime. Are there any initiatives in place to deal with this?

 

Detective Superintendent Kelly said this was a very  ...  view the full minutes text for item 542.

543.

UPDATE ON POLICE NUMBERS pdf icon PDF 84 KB

To receive an update from Detective Superintendent Tony Kelly on police numbers in the borough.

Minutes:

An update on Police numbers in the Borough was provided by Detective Superintendent Tony Kelly.

 

NOTED:

 

i)                 The establishment (BWT) of Enfield Police is 552 full time employees (FTE).

ii)               There are currently 502.46 police officers in post which leaves 49.40 vacancies.

iii)              Of these numbers 15 officers are on maternity leave, 6 are on attachments and 35 are currently on sick leave making a total of 56 officers abstracted from the Borough.

iv)             This leaves a total of 446.6 operational officers which is 80.7% of the BWT strength.

v)               The Borough is currently fully staffed at 21 PCSOs and 8.13 Police staff, with one vacancy.

 

The following questions and comments were raised:

 

Q.      Concerns were raised over the number of vacancies (which currently stood at 49.40) and further information on this was sought.

 

A.       The majority of vacancies across the MET are within CID which is therefore increasing the pressures and stresses of Officers within this department. There is a particular shortage of Detectives across London but plans are in place to ‘home grow’ more Detectives.

544.

MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 11 JANUARY 2018 pdf icon PDF 125 KB

To receive and agree the minutes of the meeting held on 11 January 2018.

Minutes:

AGREED the minutes of the meeting held on the 11 January 2018.

545.

WORK PROGRAMME 2017/18 pdf icon PDF 219 KB

To note the completion of the work programme for 2017/18.

Minutes:

The Work Programme for 2017/18 was noted and agreed.

546.

DATE OF FUTURE MEETING

To note that future meeting dates will be confirmed at Annual Council in May.

Minutes:

NOTED that this had been the last meeting of the Panel for the 2017/18 Municipal Year. A new programme of dates for 2018/19 is currently being prepared for inclusion on the Council’s calendar of meetings due to be approved at the Annual Council meeting in May 2018.

 

Councillor Lappage thanked Councillor Smith for chairing the Panel over the past year and felt that everyone had worked very well together in a healthy and cross party way.

 

She also thanked officers and the Police for their continued support and attendance at the meetings, and thanked the Youth Parliament Representative and members of the public for their regular attendance and engagement too.