The Chair welcomed all attendees.  Apologies were received from Councillor Hasan, Natalie Sherman (Parent Engagement Panel) and representatives of the Enfield Youth Parliament.  Apologies for lateness were received from Superintendent Jenny Barnett.

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

There were no declarations of interest.

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

Andrea Clemons, Head of Community Safety and Shan Kilby, Domestic Violence Co-Ordinator presented this report and highlighted the following:

·         The trend for recorded Domestic Abuse offences is upward with an increase of 124 cases in the past year

·         Copies of leaflets were shown to attendees of recent campaigns encouraging people to report incidents. It was emphasised that this crime was no respector of wealth, geography, gender or ethnicity.

·         The police are conducting a review of domestic abuse offences to be completed by the end of October 2016. This is a priority area for the police. The annual report from the Crown Prosecution service shows that domestic abuse, rape and sexual offences has increased by nearly 9% in six years.

·         The Governments’ refreshed- ‘Violence against Women and Girls Strategy 2016-2020’ focuses on ‘prevention, provision of services, partnership working and pursuing perpetrators’. There may be a shortage of funding available for initiatives aimed at perpetrators of this crime to change their behaviour.

·         MOPAC produced a report on Domestic Abuse in London 2015-16 looking at homicides that had occurred and what services are available and what services are required. Independent Domestic Violence Advocates (IDVA’s) are in short supply across London

·         It was thought the new Police & Crime Commissioner would be looking for more ‘outcome focused reports’ in future.  An example of this would be to show whether someone’s life had been improved as a result of a new programme.

·         The funding allocation for next year is to be announced shortly. It was noted that although Enfield has many of the same issues as inner London boroughs they have not always seen funding allocations matching demands.

The following questions were raised from Members:

Q: Do we have an adequate provision of Refuges in Enfield?

A: We have an appropriate number in respect of proportionality – that is to say Enfield has reasonable access. Some people from outside the borough may make use of the spaces in Enfield; similarly some of our residents may use facilities outside the borough. 

Q: Do we know if the increased number of cases of domestic abuse are coming from particular ‘groups’ - Some groups may not recognise that this is abuse?

A: We have looked in some detail at the data for victims. It appears to show that women in their 30’s represent the largest increase in numbers.  There is a likelihood that more young people are shown in the data, as reporting age range has been lowered.  The Council has targeted communications at younger women as it is believed that there is under- reporting in this group past especially with regard to young women who have links to gang members.  It should also be remembered that we have a large population with an increasing number of younger people.

Q: Do we know which ethnic minority groups are involved?  When these things happen the people concerned may not see it as a problem?

A: It is understood that the top group that report offences are white women in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 204.

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

Received a report from Andrea Clemons, Head of Community Safety.

NOTED:

• That the new London Crime Policing Plan may result in changes to the performance indicators used in future
• Indicators for crimes highlighted in green show an improved performance from the baseline (2011/12) figures shown.  These include those for burglary, robbery, theft from motor vehicle and theft of motor vehicles
• Overall, the MOPAC seven crime categories for Enfield are showing a -1.2% decrease in the last 12 months
• Indicators for crimes highlighted in red show an increase in cases and include ‘theft from person’ and ‘violence with injury’. 
• The ‘violence with injury’ cases largely include domestic abuse cases and street brawls/ street gang incidents. Compared to other London boroughs our increase for these cases over the previous 12 months is relatively minor at 0.1%. The reason why the data for Enfield is better than for other boroughs regarding gang crime is that we are focusing on early intervention to restrict behaviours, this involves targeted work and bidding for resources.
• ‘ASB calls’, which is one of the additional SSCB priorities now includes calls taken relating to Council housing estates.
• The ‘Performance Tracker’ graph shows the increase in the % of cases of ‘violence with injury’ for Enfield since 2010.  Apart from this, the graph shows a general improvement trend for Enfield for the MOPAC seven crime categories.
• Both Robbery and Burglary indicators for Enfield show a decrease over the last 12 months.  Campaigns on ‘Met trace’ and ‘Be Safe’ are significant here and have been used to encourage people to secure their properties.
• Data for Serious Youth violence shows an increase of 2.1% for Enfield and 4.3% for London for the last 12 months. Although gang related crime is not a performance indicator, there are indicators which relate to this issue such as for knife or gun crime.  A ‘hotspot’ map showing the areas of increased ‘Serious Youth Violence’ in London for the last year indicates that north/eastern boroughs are particularly affected.
• It was pointed out that ‘gun crimes’ recorded, include cases where a crime is committed by a person who has intimated that he has a gun even when this may not later be found.   For those cases recorded as ‘gun discharged’, evidence would need to be shown that a gun had actually been discharged.  An armed response unit would be called out when it is known that a gun is present.
• Violence Trend Charts were shown for Dec 2013 to August 2016 - for the number of cases of ‘Robbery’ ‘Violence with Injury’ and ‘Serious Youth Violence’.  It also indicated the periods where additional resources were provided. This is to indicate whether additional resources had had an impact on crime.
• A table indicating the 5 strands of ‘hate crime’ indicated the number of offences for the year compared to the previous 12 months for both Enfield and London. There are relatively low numbers of hate crime in Enfield with racist offences experiencing the biggest numbers and the biggest  ...  view the full minutes text for item 205.

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

Andrea Clemons gave a brief verbal update on the MOPAC and Crime Policing Plan.  The new Deputy Mayor for London had stated that London boroughs would shortly be informed of the funding allocations for next year.  Andrea had hoped to be able to report on whether the funding for Enfield had increased, however this information was not yet known.  It was likely that victims and the impact of crime on victims would be a main consideration when deciding priorities.

The MOPAC plan will look at making victims the heart of everything and the impact of crime on the most vulnerable. Policing priorities are expected to be; neighbourhood policing, keeping children and young people safe, violence against women and girls’ a criminal justice system that works for London and hate, extremism and terrorism in all its forms

Councillor Laban referred to the legal duty to cooperative with other ‘blue light’ services coming into effect next year. Superintendent Jenny Barnett confirmed that the emergency services do already work closely together and were looking at how this could be achieved and provided an example in the taking of emergency calls. No firm decisions had yet been made and the police were looking at what was going on in other areas to see if they could be beneficial to our service .She did not think there would be any immediate changes apparent.

To receive an update from Superintendent Jenny Barnett on Police numbers in the Borough.

Superintendent Jenny Barnett updated the meeting on the police numbers for Enfield.  She said the target number of police officers for the borough is 555 and as at 7 October 2016 we had 511 officers in post. It was noted that the number of officers fluctuate and thought the number of police officers was now closer to the 555 figure than that shown at 7October 2016  A number of additional officers are expected from Hendon shortly. 

Under the new Neighbourhood Plan every ward in London is to have two dedicated ward officers and one PCSO. This is positive news for neighbourhoods as these officers will be focused on dealing with the community in the way that ‘home beat officers’ used to do in the past.  A table indicating the target strength, vacancies and the number of officers on ‘adjusted duties’ for local Boroughs was given which showed that Enfield had the largest vacancy rate of 5.4% as at 7 October 2016.  However Superintendent Jenny Barnett said this was expected to improve shortly.

The following questions/ comments were raised:

Q: Of the 555 target, does this include those on long term sick?

A: Yes

Q: Do you get cover for officers on maternity leave?

A: No

Q: How many of our officers are shown as being on long term sick/ maternity leave or working out of the borough?

A: Some may work on projects out of the borough however they would still be shown under our numbers.  It would be possible to obtain figures for those non deployable officers if required.  The Police do manage attendance and do not have many cases of people on long term sick leave.

Q: For new officers coming from Hendon do they have a choice of where they would prefer to be based and if so, do they request that they come to Enfield?

A: Officers are able to give preferences, those boroughs with good transport links would probably get most requests and some do give a preference for Enfield.  Their preference would probably be based on where they live. However ultimately they will be posted where they are most needed.

Q: Do officers need to live within the M25?

A: Yes you need to have lived within the M25 for 3 of the last 6 years however this would not apply for those already working as special constables.  Only Community Ambassador officers would need to be able to speak an additional language to English

Q: Of the two dedicated ward officers to be based in each ward, if one of the officers were to go on maternity leave would another officer cover this position from Enfield?

A: It would depend on priorities at the time.

To note the Work Programme for 2016/17

The Work Programme for 2016/17 was noted.

To receive and agree the Minutes of the meeting held on 22 March 2016.

The Minutes of the 18 March 2015 were AGREED.

A member of the public referred to problems with ‘Aggressive Beggars’ he also spoke of ‘Road Rage’ issues.  It was confirmed that issues of particular concern can be included as a ward priority and there is consultation on public spaces/ issues until the end of November.

It was confirmed that the police work closely with the Council’s Anti-social team.  

There was a general discussion about seating in public areas which may attract anti-social behaviour/ beggars and the need to ensure that seats are sited in appropriate places.

Superintendent Jenny Barnett spoke of the town planning design issues that help to reduce anti-social behaviour including the use of better street lighting, classical music and cameras.

Concerns were raised about the need for more public toilets especially with regard to the introduction of the 24 hour tube service, in an effort to avoid anti-social behaviour.  Also concerns were raised about prescription drugs and ‘needles’ left in gardens, these issues had been reported to the relevant local police team.

Reference was made to brothels/ prostitution in Upper Edmonton.  The police were aiming to target the ‘clientele’ of prostitutes, as it was thought this had more positive results. 

It was noted that there are items on begging, prostitution and the effect of the 24 hour tube service on the Piccadilly line are all future agenda items for the workstream.

To note the dates of future meetings as follows:

5 January 2017

22 March 2017

The dates of future meetings were noted as

5 January 2017 and

22 March 2017.