Agenda for Crime Scrutiny Panel on Tuesday, 22nd March, 2016, 7.00 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

469.

WELCOME & APOLOGIES

Minutes:

Apologies from absence were received from Councillors Doyle, Ekechi and Hasan.

470.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

471.

CHANGE OF ORDER OF AGENDA

Minutes:

It was agreed that Item 7: Safer Neighbourhood Board Update would be taken first on the agenda. The minutes however would reflect the original order of the agenda.

472.

TACKLING GANGS & SERIOUS YOUTH VIOLENCE STRATEGY & ACTION PLAN UPDATE pdf icon PDF 98 KB

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

Minutes:

RECEIVED an update from Andrea Clemons, Head of Community Safety.

 

NOTED:

 

(i)            The report was split into five sections; Identification, Prevention, Intervention, Enforcement and Conclusion;

(ii)          Andrea went through the report, providing detailed information on each area;

(iii)         The Gangs Partnership Group (GPG) had now evolved into a fortnightly meeting with many partners and agencies attending;

(iv)         The two agencies that we would like to improve links with are housing and mental health. Mental health is the more important of the two and work is ongoing to try and achieve representation for the future;

(v)          There is a concern that the average age of young people coming to notice for gang related offending or involvement is decreasing. Work is ongoing to try and find out whether this is short term or a longer term issue, and this needs to be understood and tackled

(vi)         Work was taking place with the Mayors’ office around gangs. Certain young people and adults will move from Enfield (and other areas) and set up a criminal franchise of sorts outside of London, predominately to set up sales of illegal drugs;

(vii)        The North Middlesex Hospital (NMH) A&E project, provided by Oasis, was officially launched in November 2015 and continues to grow. Over the last 12 months there have been 224 referrals of which 168 were Enfield residents, 93 young people were able to be contacted an offered support;

(viii)      The A&E project links in with the St Giles Trust who provide a similar service at the Royal London Hospital which is commissioned by MOPAC and information is shared between teams;

(ix)         Domestic violence and abuse are areas that need to be better understood as there appears to be an increase in sexual violence that is gang related;

(x)          The GPG coordinates action plans that support and divert young people from joining gangs. Enfield commissions, using MOPAC funding, St Giles Trust to provide a gang exit strategy worker who works with young people and their families to support them leaving the gang lifestyle or prevent them from joining gangs;

(xi)         The current St Giles worker has worked or is working with 24 young people since taking up the post;

(xii)        The Gang Call in continues and 10 have now been delivered. The police gangs coordinator post is currently vacant and this has prevented any further dates being agreed. This post is currently being recruited to;

(xiii)      The police have delivered Crest to some secondary schools within the borough. This is a version of the Call In and targets whole year groups to inform them of the risks and consequences of joining gangs;

(xiv)      A family approach is taken to intervention work and every effort is made to engage with  the family and particularly parents in order to support them in diverting their children away from gangs;

(xv)        Since the strategy was agreed there has been an overall increase in serious youth violence in both Enfield and the Metropolitan Police area of 5.7% for Enfield  ...  view the full minutes text for item 472.

473.

SSCB PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT pdf icon PDF 898 KB

To receive a report from Rod Bennett, Community Safety Information Manager.

Minutes:

RECEIVED a report from Rod Bennett, Community Safety Information Manager.

 

NOTED:

 

(i)            General trends are very similar to those presented at the last meeting in January 2016;

(ii)          Anti-Social Behaviour calls (-5.3%), Burglary (-6.8%), Theft of Motor Vehicles (-17.3%) are all currently experiencing reductions in the rolling 12-months to 8th March 2016;

(iii)         Overall, MOPAC seven recorded crime categories are experiencing a 0.6% increase in the rolling 12 months to date;

(iv)         Enfield is currently experiencing a -5.1% decrease in Serious Youth Violence Victims in the FY 15/16 to the 28th February. London has experienced an overall increase of +4.0% in the same period

(v)          Reported Domestic Abuse Violence with Injury offences have risen by +4.4% in the FY to 2nd March 2016. This equates to an extra 37 offences;

(vi)         Four of the seven MOPAC indicators are currently experiencing in the 12-months rolling (Robbery +18.4%, Theft from M/V +4.3%, Theft from Person +1.1% and Violence with Injury +2.4%). All of these except Violence with Injury have seen a reduction in the longer term;

(vii)        A detailed table was provided showing the performance overview for MOPAC 7 and SSCB Priorities;

(viii)      Performance tracker maps were also provided for MOPAC 7 and vehicle crimes and MOPAC 7 and robbery;

(ix)          A London Borough Ranking Table was also looked at, showing MOPAC 7 and total notifiable offences percentage changes;

(x)          Further information and figures were provided for Serious Acquisitive Crime (SAC), which includes Robbery, Vehicle Crime and Burglary;

(xi)         Information and figures were also provided on Violence Against Women & Girls (VAWG) and Serious Youth Violence.

 

The following questions/comments were raised:

 

Q:        Do you think the media has a lot to answer for as they only appear to report on the most awful of crimes yet very rarely show good news stories?

A:        Unfortunately good news isn’t really news at all, only headlines sell papers. In view of this the police put a lot of time and effort into their twitter feed and this is now one of their main areas of communication.

 

Q:        Is there a rise in disability hate crime and if so is it related with young people travelling to and from school?

A:        No, there has not been a particular rise in this sort of crime, but there is obviously a concern that people feel empowered enough to report this sort of crime, therefore a lot of work takes place around this issue. There is a meeting of the Hate Crime Forum tomorrow at Community House focusing on disability.

 

Q:        I am shocked about the number of rapes reported on. Are we doing anything specific in this area?

A:        A rape is reported to police in about 10% of cases. We have specialist investigation teams dealing with this. This is not a unique issue to Enfield though. The figures, although still shocking, demonstrate that more people are coming forward to report this type of crime. It must be remembered however that police reported figures do not  ...  view the full minutes text for item 473.

474.

SSCB PARTNERSHIP PLAN & STRATEGIC PRIORITIES

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

Minutes:

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

 

NOTED:

 

(i)            It was proposed to continue with the same priorities going forward with a similar funding amount available for the next 12 months;

(ii)          It was also proposed to keep the same 7 MOPAC priorities with a focus on areas of most need and people at higher risk of harm;

(iii)         Work was taking place around housing estates, with a focus on five specific estates. The police, environment enforcement, ASB officers and Housing Estate Officers were working jointly on this , and there were already some great improvements being seen, with further interesting developments to come;

(iv)         Andrea agreed to send Susan Payne an electronic copy of the Guide to Effective Partnership Working. A copy of this can be obtained from Stacey.gilmour@enfield.gov.uk

 

The following question was raised:

 

Q:        Are any extra measures being put in place for when the 24 hour tubes start running?

A:        I had a meeting with TFL and Joanne McCarthy some time ago regarding this issue. However, in view of the industrial action no further developments have currently taken place. It was envisaged that the night time economy would change as a result of these changes and there would therefore be a watch and brief across London with the most affected Enfield areas being picked up on at the JTAG meetings.

475.

UPDATE ON POLICE NUMBERS pdf icon PDF 26 KB

To receive an update from Superintendent Carl Robinson on Police numbers in the Borough.

Minutes:

An update on Police numbers in the Borough was provided by Superintendent Carl Robinson. He stated that the target for Enfield Police is 557 officers. There are currently 543.79 police officers in post which comprises both full time and part time officers.

 

Superintendent Robinson went on to explain that Police numbers will fluctuate for a number of good reasons. Officers will retire, resign, seek lateral development to specialist teams, move to other Boroughs or move on promotion. As a Borough Enfield have invested in ensuring it knows exactly where its staff are at and have a monthly personnel planning meeting to forecast movements and ensure that each of the three main portfolios (Emergency response, Neighbourhoods and CID) all have as close to their budgeted target as possible.

 

A detailed table was produced showing the most recent comparison data across the MPS – although this was produced at the end of February 2016 with future known actuals and vacancies shown to the end of May 2016. It should be noted that Enfield will be showing 557 officers from February 2016 as opposed to 561 in the last report. All boroughs have lost officers with some Boroughs losing 8 officers. This incorporates planning for enhanced SC017 (Sexual Offences investigation) which has officers undertaking sexual offence investigations on Boroughs but being provided from a central team.

 

The following questions were raised:

 

Q:        What crimes give the police the most cause for concern?

A:        Gang related crime is a big concern. It is very hard to tackle as it is about status, power and money. There is a lost youth which the police primarily struggle to engage with. Unfortunately the police then just become an enforcement body.

Q:        What are your views on arming for police?

A:        I am pleased that most officers are not armed, and I am proud to be part of an unarmed service. We do however use Taser which is a much less lethal mechanism. I would also add that the Armed Response Unit can get to any area of the MET within fifteen minutes.

Q:        Future police numbers are still down. When might this change?

A:        We keep pushing for it but unfortunately the numbers are allocated to us.

476.

SAFER NEIGHBOURHOOD BOARD UPDATE pdf icon PDF 195 KB

To receive a report from Tim Fellowes, Chair, Safer Neighbourhood Board.

Minutes:

RECEIVED a report from Tim Fellows, Chair, Enfield Safer Neighbourhood Board.

 

NOTED:

 

(i)              The Enfield Safer Neighbourhood Board (SNB) has been in place since April 2014, and this was Tim’s first year as Chair;

(ii)             The SNB holds four public meetings a year including and Annual General meeting;

(iii)            At each Board meeting it is planned to receive a presentation on a current issue regarding policing or community safety. This ongoing process will allow the Board to be better informed and more able to input in policing numbers;

(iv)           In addition, six Board members have formed an Executive Committee (including the Chair) which has assisted in taking forward the work of the Board. In order to do this, Members within the Committee have been given particular roles; for example, monitoring and dealing with all incoming and outgoing communications or co-ordinating funding bids;

(v)            In addition to the three successful bids outlined in the last update, the SNB has also had an additional two bids for project funding accepted. Brief details of the projects were provided. These were: EIYCT & Oasis Hub Enfield – Youth Outreach and LYRC Crises Action Team;

(vi)           Three projects had received funding from MOPAC for 2014/15. These were: St Giles Trust SOS Knife Project and Leaflet, Parenting Workshops and Visits to Ben Kinsella Exhibition. An additional update was provided on each of these projects;

(vii)          In summary, the board has now established itself more fully and continues to effectively monitor issues of crime and community safety.

 

Tim asked the Councillors present how they felt the CAPEs were working in their wards?

 

Councillor Maguire said she regularly attended her CAPE and found it very useful. She felt it was a shame however that it was always the same people who turned up but felt that the time of the meeting, 11:00am, limited the number of people who would be able to attend. She did sometimes feel guilty that police time was being spent sitting around a table, when their time could be better spent elsewhere. Tim said that if the CAPE is well run it is in fact very good use of police time. He agreed that there is a need to increase the number of people attending the ward CAPES and felt this was something that Councillors could assist with as they came into contact with lots of members of the public. He asked Councillors to encourage residents to attend. Councillor Maguire said she did feel there were now limitations on what the CAPEs could achieve especially when looking at police figures and hot spots.

 

Councillor Hayward agreed that it was often difficult to attend her CAPE due to the time of day it was held. She also felt it was important to move location of the meetings around the ward. This would hopefully encourage more people to attend.

 

Councillor Laban said that her ward CAPE meeting was also held during the day, which again, often made attendance difficult. The meeting was however held in a school  ...  view the full minutes text for item 476.

477.

WORK PROGRAMME 2015/16 pdf icon PDF 208 KB

To note the Workstream’s Work Programme for 2015/16.

Minutes:

The Work Programme for 2015/16 was noted.

478.

MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 12 JANUARY 2016 pdf icon PDF 134 KB

To receive and agree the Minutes of the meeting held on 12 January 2016.

Minutes:

AGREED the minutes of the meeting held on 12 January 2016.

479.

MATTERS ARISING FROM PREVIOUS MEETING ON 12 JANUARY 2016

Minutes:

Minute No: (4), Bullet Point: 6 – Youth Offending Figures

 

The following information was provided:

 

(i)              173 people on case-loads;

(ii)             All young people are risk assessed;

(iii)            Intensive risk – 42% (high risk);

(iv)           5 young people were sentenced to custodial sentences last quarter;

(v)            Overall numbers for  custodial sentences in 2015 were as follows:

·       6 – robbery

·       4 – violence

·       2 – offensive weapons

·       2 – burglary

·       1 aggravated motor vehicle crime

(vi)           Many of the issues were caused by under qualified and under motivated young people.

480.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Minutes:

NOTED that there was no other business to discuss.

 

481.

DATES OF FUTURE MEETINGS

Dates of future meetings will be agreed at full council on 11 May 2016.

Minutes:

The dates of future meetings would be agreed at the meeting of Annual Council on 11 May 2016.