Agenda and minutes

The Chair noted the sadness of all at the loss of our late Sovereign, the Queen Elizabeth II, who was held in such great affection by the people of this borough. There would be an opportunity to pay tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth and to send good wishes to our new King, King Charles III, at the forthcoming Council meeting on 21 September. It was therefore proposed to simply hold a minute’s silence before commencing the business of this evening’s meeting.

Cllr Needs, Cabinet Member, Community Safety & Cohesion, also paid tribute to a very dear colleague within the Community Safety Team who had very sadly passed away. A further minute’s silence was held in her memory.

Apologies were received from the Chair, Cllr Mike Rye OBE (substituted by Cllr Reece Fox) and Andrea Clemons, Head of Community Safety.

As Vice-Chair, Cllr Chris Dey chaired the meeting.

An apology for lateness was also received from Cllr Mahmut Aksanoglu.

Attendees were welcomed to the meeting and introductions were made.

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

Councillor Adrian Grumi declared a non-pecuniary interest as he runs the Enfield Crime Watch Facebook page.

To agree the minutes of the Crime Scrutiny Panel meeting held on 28 June 2022.

AGREED the minutes of the meeting held on 28 June 2022.

To receive the report of Supt. Rhona Hunt, Supt Partnerships North Area and Andrea Clemons, Head of Community Safety.

Received the report of Andrea Clemons, Head of Community Safety and
Superintendent Rhona Hunt, Supt Partnerships North Area, highlighting the following:

(i)            Enfield Safer Estates Team were formed to increase safety for residents in council housing areas in the borough. The Council has contracted with the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime previously and the current contract was signed in 2019 and extended to the end of March 2023.

(ii)          Five estates (Ayley Croft, Joyce & Snells, Lytchet, Klinger and Shires) are designated as ‘priority estates’ where the team are expected to focus most of their attention.

(iii)         The contract covers 1 Police Sergeant post and 15 Police Constable posts. This meets the MPS supervision ratio of 1 PS:8 PC. The council are invoiced based on actual resourcing levels. Any vacant posts or any abstractions from Safer Estate Team duties are not charged. The estates team currently consists of 1 Police Sergeant and 11 Police Constables.

(iv)         Neighbourhood officer abstraction rates are high. The Safer Estates Team are protected from abstractions, except in extreme circumstances, in which case the Council is not charged.

(v)          Crime across the priority estates increased by 20%. This represents a total increase of 99 offences (20/21-21/22). This increase is higher than the overall 5.1% increase in crime across the borough.

(vi)         However, these areas disproportionately contribute to the overall borough average. The five priority estates are located in the East of the borough where there is a greater density of population and higher levels of crime and Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) are reported.

(vii)        An increase in drug offences should be interpreted as an indicator of the proactivity of the team as these offences are discovered by officers. Drug crime has been identified as a major driver for violent crime and ASB, not just on the estates but in the wider community.

(viii)       Four out of the five priority estates recorded a reduction in the number of ASB calls in the past 12 months when compared to the previous year. A reduction of 27.9% equates to 94 less reports of ASB across the estates.

(ix)         Rape is a priority crime type for the MPS. A review of the offences within this geographical location in the period reported revealed that this significant increase included historic offences which have been reported in the period shown, offences which have taken place inside private premises between parties known to each other and offences on sex workers working in the vicinity of priority estates. Safer Estate Team officers, Operation Boxster officers and Public Protection specialist investigators are working tirelessly to ensure women and girls are safe in Enfield.

(x)          The team work in close partnership with council officers. The flow of intelligence between the Safer Estates Team and the ASB Co-ordinators allows the council to re-direct police resources to target crime and ASB issues impacting residents without delay. The team also attend events such as resident association meetings to provide an accessible service for local residents.

(xi)         Further information was provided on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To receive the report of Supt. Rhona Hunt, Supt Partnerships North Area.

RECEIVED the report of Supt. Rhona Hunt, highlighting the following:

(i)            The report provides an update on MPS work locally to prevent serious crime (violence, domestic abuse and rape) and increase sanction detections.

(ii)          Close partnership working takes place on prevention and detection of crime to keep Enfield residents safe. However, the report request was specific to police activity but it should be noted that there is also significant partnership activity undertaken, which has not been detailed in the report.

(iii)         Detailed information was provided on the various work taking place around prevention activity as well as improving detections for violent crime, domestic abuse and rape.

(iv)         North Area BCU Critical Incident (CI) Team was launched in June 2022 to improve detections. Since the inception there have been some fantastic results achieved. This includes several charges of serious assaults, investigating high profile cases across the BCU.

(v)          Enfield MARAC (Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference) is a bi-monthly multi-agency meeting chaired by a Detective Inspector from the Domestic Abuse Unit and discusses cases of domestic abuse. The BCU works closely with third sector agencies such as IDVAs (Independent Domestic Violence Advocates) in order to support the victims of this crime type.

(vi)         The BCU has an effective process around panic alarms and makes regular use of these for high-risk victims of domestic abuse.

(vii)        The MPS aspiration is to detect 30% of all Domestic Abuse (DA) offences. This is recognised as being a particular challenge. In the last performance year 12.7% of all domestic abuse offences resulted in a charge or a police caution.

(viii)       The BCU has a dedicated team of investigators (the Community Safety) that investigates all offences of Domestic Abuse in Enfield and Haringey. This is led by 2 Detective Inspectors and 8 Detective Sergeants and an establishment of 55 investigators. The team has regular training days from subject matter experts and CPS lawyers in order to enhance their level of skill and investigative capacity.

(ix)         North Area has one of the lowest incidence rates for rape in London (9 out of 12 BCUs). That said there have been 689 reports of rape in North Area in the last 12 months. Of these, 349 took place in Enfield, an increase of 19.4% in Enfield compared to the previous rolling year.

(x)          The BCU has a local VAWG (Violence Against Women and Girls) plan which feeds into the MPS VAWG Action Plan. The themes of this plan are detailed in the report.

(xi)         Local prevention activity forms part of the ‘Summer Nights’ plan and again, details of the activity taking place are detailed in the report.

(xii)        North Area BCU has a prevention strategy which links in with the joint CPS-Police Rape Action Plan. A significant focus of this plan is to increase the number of offences brought to justice. The team has one of the lowest numbers of outstanding offenders for rape in the MPS, with most believed to be out of the UK and efforts in hand to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To receive the report of Andrea Clemons, Head of Community Safety.

RECEIVED the report of the Community Safety Analyst, highlighting the following:

(i)    A summary of the data was provided. Total Notifiable Offences in Enfield increased by 5.8% in the year ending July 2022. In London, there was a higher increase of 10.1% in the same period.

(ii)  An increasing number of London Boroughs have recorded increases in Serious Youth Violence (SYV) victims in the last year. There was an average 7.7% rise in London equating to 459 more victims than last year across the capital.

(iii) Enfield recorded 11.2% reduction in the number of Serious Youth Violence (SYV) victims in year ending July 2022, or 38 less victims when compared to the same period last year. Enfield is ranked 5^th out of 32 boroughs for the number of SYV victims in the past 12 months.

(iv) Further information was tabled detailing pre and post-pandemic levels of crime in Enfield- (2 years after the first lockdown), showing comparisons in performance data. This showed a reduction in SYV to pre-pandemic levels. This figure has tracked down and down and it was agreed that this was really encouraging to see.

(v)  The number of ASB calls has reduced considerably this year, and the number of Gun Crime offences also reduced by 74 offences in 12 months to March 2022 when compared to pre-pandemic year

(vi) Some crime categories in the borough have maintained a decline or lower levels than those recorded prior to July 2021, such as Child Sexual Exploitation Offences.

The following comments/questions were raised:

1.    Officers and the Police provided further information on the various crime figures detailed in the report and gave an overview of the work taking place within their teams.

2.    In response to Members’ queries, officers provided more details on key issues, challenges and comparative data.

3.    Ivana Price, Head of Young People & Community Safety provided an update on the ‘No Knives Better Lives’ initiative which provided education around the risk of carrying knives and the ramifications and some really great feedback had already been received.

4.    Ivana also spoke about Knife Crime Prevention Orders (KCPOs), which is a new civic order intended to help direct those who may be carrying knives or who are at greatest risk of being drawn into serious violence, away from being involved in knife crime. They will also help to prevent others who have been involved in knife crime from further offending when used following a conviction. Trials would be taking place to see how these orders can be used more for the prevention of knife crime around young people.

5.    Concerns were raised in relation to the Theft or Taking of a Motor Vehicle. Superintendent Rhona Hunt acknowledged the significant impact of this crime from a victims perspective and provided a comprehensive update on the initiatives and work taking place in an attempt to combat this crime type which included proactively reviewing the figures every month and continually reviewing the intelligence around this issue. She did highlight however how  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To note the Crime Scrutiny Panel Work Programme for 2022/23.

NOTED the Crime Scrutiny Panel Work Programme 2022/23.

To note the dates of future meetings as follows:

·         Wednesday 7 December 2022

·         Wednesday 1 March 2023

NOTED the dates of future meetings as follows:

·         Wednesday 7 December 2022

·         Wednesday 1 March 2023.

These meetings will commence at 7:00pm and will be held in the Conference Room at the Civic Centre.