Agenda and minutes

The new Chair of the Panel, Councillor Smith welcomed all attendees to the meeting and introduced the new members.

NOTED:

i)                 Councillor Laban had now stepped down from the committee and had been replaced by Councillor Lee David-Sanders.

ii)               Askin Erozkal, the new Parent Engagement Panel representative was welcomed to her first meeting of the Crime Scrutiny Panel

There were no declarations of interest.

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

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

i)                 The MOPAC performance frameworks are still being developed but this report has been structured in advance of the publication of the MOPAC dashboards, which are due to be shared in the next 4-6 weeks.

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 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 01/09/2015 to 31/08/2017.

iv)             Keeping people safe at home had been added as a priority and incorporated figures provided by the London Borough of Enfield. These figures would continue to be provided for future reports

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

vi)             In-depth discussions then took place around each priority and further clarification was sought regarding the proposed measures and how it was envisaged that these would work.

The Following questions and comments were then raised:

Q.      It would be interesting to see the Fire Brigade Figures broken down further, e.g. private rented accommodation etc.

A.       It was agreed that more detailed figures would be provided.

Action: Andrea Clemons

Q.      How are we measuring our progress with, for example something like Operation Braemont?

A.       The Police have an Action Plan that shows how many knife sweeps take place and how many weapons seized. This data is collected by the Police on a weekly basis and it is also available to the Council. It then gets presented to the Safe and Stronger Board and then to the Crime Scrutiny Panel to scrutinise accordingly.

Q.      There doesn’t appear to be any data included in the report on the number of arrests and successful prosecutions therefore it is quite a struggle to understand the full picture. Although the figures shown are obviously important, it is difficult to draw from them how the Police are using their resources. It was felt that not knowing the number of arrests and prosecutions around Youth Violence was a significant gap.

A.       Arrest figures are available and of course can be provided. If sanction detections are required for all of the crime types they are relatively easy to obtain and can be included in future reports. However, it was not certain that these would reflect on Enfield’s Partnership Plan. As a way forward Andrea suggested that if there is a certain area that particularly could not be explained then further detail could be requested and more in-depth ‘drilling down’ could take place.

Q.      It was felt that it would be useful to see a breakdown of crimes area by area, ward by ward.

A.       Andrea advised that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 308.

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

NOTED that this item was covered within the discussions that took place under agenda item 3 above: SSCB Performance Management-Monitoring Update.

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

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

NOTED:

i)                 The establishment (BWT) of Enfield Police is 554 full time employees (FTE).

ii)               There are currently 523.52 police officers in post which comprises of both full time and part time officers.

iii)              13 are on maternity leave, 7 are on attachments, 21 are currently on sick leave making a total of 41 officers abstracted from the Borough.

iv)             This leaves a total of 482.52 operational officers which is 87% of the BWT strength.

v)               The Borough is currently fully staffed at 21 PCSOs and 9 Police Staff.

The following questions were raised:

Q.      Can some further information be provided regarding sick leave and how this is dealt with?

A.       Attendance Management is carried out on a daily basis and, in line with the Attendance Management Policy sickness rates are looked at as part of this process. Any trends or patterns in a particular team are investigated to find out why this may be occurring. Long term sickness is monitored and processes are in place to ensure that individuals’ welfare is being looked after. The process is robust and allows for management of any individuals who may be taking advantage of the system. It was confirmed that all those currently on long term sickness leave do have long term sickness issues.

Q.      Is there comparison data available to look at the sickness levels in Enfield compared to the rest of the MET?

A.       This information would be provided for a future meeting.

          Action: Detective Superintendent Tony Kelly

Q       How many Specials do we currently have on the Borough?

A.       We do not have a ceiling on Specials. All those on the list are required to work a total of 16 hours per month. There had been lots of people on the current list who had not worked any hours. There is now a dedicated full time Sergeant in place whose job is to redress the low attendance of Specials. Conversations will take place to try and encourage them back, however initially numbers may decrease due to a change in individuals’ circumstances (e.g. now in full time paid employment etc). What we are seeing however is that that although the number of Specials is reducing, the number of hours they are actually working is increasing, therefore the overall picture for Specials on the Borough is good.

Q.      Police Officers have to deal with much more on the streets due to increased pressures and less Officers available. What is happening in Enfield regarding stress and is this affecting sickness levels?

A.       Yes, stress is a significant factor and does impact on the sickness levels in Enfield. In CID there are Officers who are stressed and on medication yet not restricted and not off sick although they should be. The majority of vacancies across the MET are within CID therefore increasing the pressures and stresses of Officers within this department.

To receive an update from Superintendent Tony Kelly.(See Report attached to Agenda Item No:5)

Detective Superintendent Tony Kelly provided an update on the Changes to the Policing Model for London.

NOTED:

i)                 The MPS has made £600m of savings as a consequence of Government cuts to policing. This is now being compounded by a need to make a further £400m of savings.

ii)               The aim is to protect the front line as much as possible, which means diverting resources from underused services and investing in police officers.

iii)              While change is taking place to improve the public’s ability to access policing online, local policing, rooted in London’s communities, remains at the heart of our offer to the public. The number of dedicated ward officers is being increased, and new technology will make them more efficient and effective as well as, crucially, more accessible.

iv)             The online offer is being transformed to enable Londoners to report crimes online, and a shift has already been seen in the number of people doing this.

v)               There are currently 73 front counters across London. 33 are open 24 hours a day (one per borough with two in Westminster) with 40 just open in the day time.

vi)             Across London in May 7,800 crimes were reported at front counters, an average of 260 a day or 3.5 crimes per front counter per day. Of these crimes just 7% were reported by people over 60. This represents about 8% of all crime reports, which has reduced from 10% in 2013 when the last round of closures took place and over 20% in 2006.

vii)            With the continuing delivery of channels of access to policing services for the public via technology solutions, the demand and need for the current level and distribution of services delivered through traditional front counters will diminish. This will allow for the reduction in physical front counter locations down to one 24/7 facility per borough and where demonstrated by footfall, a daytime service.

viii)           Currently on Enfield borough a 24/7 front counter operates from Edmonton Police Station and daytime front counters operate from Enfield Police Station. In future the 24/7 service will operate from Edmonton Police Station and Enfield will close. Two new Dedicated Ward Officer (DWO) hubs are required.

ix)             DWOs will be running community contact sessions in conjunction with the local community to ensure that local people can meet officers face to face in their community.

The following questions were raised:

Q. Will the accommodation at Edmonton Police station cope once the other stations are closed? There already seems to be an issue of overcrowding at the front counter area. We do not want a repeat of what happened with the Health Service (increased pressures for North Middlesex Hospital when Chase Farm A&E Department closed)

A.  There is deemed to be enough space at Edmonton Police Station and there is also a plan in place to refurbish the premises floor by floor.

Q. Are there plans to expand the front counter reception area to accommodate the increase in people coming there to report crimes?  ...  view the full minutes text for item 311.

To receive an update from Superintendent Tony Kelly. (See report attached to Agenda Item No:5)

RECEIVED an update on the CAPE’s/Ward Panels.

NOTED:

i)                 There are Community Action Partnership in Enfield (CAPE) monthly meetings held in all 21 wards in Enfield.

ii)               This is in contrast to most other London boroughs, that have Ward Panels that meet on a less frequent basis.

iii)              There are also regular meetings with the CAPE Chair and the Safer Neighbourhoods Inspector.

iv)             CAPE Chairs are on a community contact list for notification when there is an incident of note/concern and are involved when a community impact assessment is conducted. They are also members of our scrutiny activities such as the Community Monitoring Group which monitors the use of stop and search.

v)               Like most voluntary activities there can be variations in attendance and make up, but on the whole the feel is that Enfield has an effective set up and there is generally a confident feel from Police colleagues that the intervention they have with the CAPEs works well.

vi)             Those that are less well constituted (Chair, Vice Chair and Secretary) are working towards filling the gaps.

The Following comments and questions were raised:

Councillor Bond commented that the Southbury Ward CAPE did not meet monthly and had so far only met three times this year.

The Chair, Councillor Smith stated that he had never been invited to a meeting of the Southgate Ward CAPE.

Councillor Lappage advised however that the Jubilee Ward CAPE worked extremely well and this was down to great partnership working and real community drive.

The Vice Chair of the Turkey Street Ward felt that there needed to be more flexibility with aspects of the meetings, such as the times they are held etc as holding meetings during the day do not suit people who work full time. He also felt there was a need to encourage more young people to attend the meetings as their views on issues would be extremely useful.

The Chair felt that there needed to be some sort of audit of the CAPEs to see what is and what isn’t working.

Tim Fellowes, Chair, Safer Neighbourhood Board said that some ward CAPEs worked very well and others not so well. It was often seen that wards that have a higher level of owner occupation have higher attendance at the CAPE meetings and vice-versa. The plan going forward is to try and have a standardised agenda and a constitution so people know what they are signing up to. Further surveys will shortly be undertaken to look at attendance at the meetings by the public, Police and Councillors.

Tim said that the people best placed to recruit members of the public to the CAPEs are the Police and Councillors when knocking on doors canvassing.

It was agreed that the SNB would take this matter forward to look at CAPE attendance and why some are working better than others.

Action: Tim Fellows - SNB Chair

The Chair thanked Detective Superintendent Tony Kelly for his interesting and informative updates.

To receive and agree the Minutes of the meeting held on 22 March 2017.

AGREED the minutes of the meeting held on the 22 March 2017.

To note the Work Programme for 2017/18

The Work Programme for 2017/18 was agreed.

NOTED:

i)                That it was proposed to move the item on Cannabis – open smoking on streets to the January 2018 meeting.

To note the dates of future meetings as follows:

11 January 2018

22 March 2018

NOTED the dates of future meetings as follows:

11 January 2018

22 March 2018