Agenda for Crime Scrutiny Panel on Wednesday, 22nd March, 2017, 7.15 pm

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Room 6, Civic Centre, Silver Street, Enfield, EN1 3XA. View directions

Contact: Stacey Gilmour 020 8379 4187  Email: Stacey.gilmour@enfield.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

298.

WELCOME & APOLOGIES

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed all attendees to the meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Laban and Stafford.

 

 

NOTED

 

1.    The meeting was chaired by Councillor Doyle as Councillor Laban had to attend another meeting at very short notice.

2.    This was the last meeting of the Crime Scrutiny Work Stream for this municipal year.

3.    In attendance was Detective Superintendent Tony Kelly who will be replacing Carl Robinson as the Detective Superintendent for crime. The Chair thanked Carl Robinson for all his hard work and support.

4.    The Chair thanked Natalie Sherman for all her contributions as this was her final meeting of the co-op team and had been on the panel for the last 2 years.

 

299.

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.

300.

SSCB PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT-MONITORING UPDATE pdf icon PDF 482 KB

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

Minutes:

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

 

·         The performance paper reflected what used to be called the MOPAC 7 suite of crimes that measured crime whether they happened or not. There was now a new plan and MOPAC 7 was not being used any more.

·         As detailed on page 1 of the report, the table highlighted 2 red areas against:

a.    Theft from person

b.    Violence with injury

Theft from person had gone up 12.9% and the MPS, as an average for the rest of London, was down by 12.9%.

·         As detailed on page 2 of the report, the London Borough Ranking Tables highlight the percentage change in notifiable offences from last year’s figures as compared to this year. Enfield’s figures had reduced by 0.41% over the 18 month period. As a comparison, Haringey had gone up by 10.69%. The victim based offences show the result of police pro-active activity.

·         As detailed on page 3 of the report, highlights Serious Acquisitive Crime (SAC) and that robbery, burglary and vehicle crime showed notable reductions.

·         As detailed on page 4 of the report, violence against Women & Girls showed a reduction in both rape offences and recorded domestic violence. Serious Youth Violence figures showed an increase of 4.55% with London experiencing an overall increase of 12.32% to the year end 7 march 2017.

 

The following questions were raised:

 

Q: When we are told that crime figures have increased or decreased, are there any particular groups of people that do and don’t tend to report crime or are less or more involved in reporting crimes?

 

A: The Community Safety Unit did not think that there was any identifying factor that would say that there was dis-proportionate reporting of crime. Their estimate would be that the majority of cases reported would be from white women. Where there were dis-proportionate areas of low crime reporting, the unit would encourage those areas to report. A recent ‘He doesn’t love you campaign’ targetted messages to very young women (14-30) through social media.

 

Q: Regarding the London Borough ranking tables (page 2 of the report) Haringey was mentioned as being the red, up by 10.69% and that Enfield were doing better. How were Barnet doing and were there any obvious differences?

 

A: This was around the density of population between the border with Enfield and Haringey as opposed to the west of the borough, which is more sparsely populated.

Q: With regards to the burglary statistics on page 3 of the report, are Met Trace, alley gating scemes continuing to be implemented across the borough and is there funding for these?

 

A: Both these initiatives are funded centrally by the Met police. The Council contribute to this by the provision of signage on lampposts warning burglars of Met Trace/smart water is being used in that area. Alley gating funding still currently available, the next year’s budget would need to be looked at as this was not the Community Safety Unit’s budget area.

 

Q:  ...  view the full minutes text for item 300.

301.

SSCB PARTNERSHIP PLAN & STRATEGIC PRIORITIES-PROGRESS UDATE

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

Minutes:

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

 

1.    Andrea Clemons would be talking about the strategic priorities for Enfield and for Enfield as part of London moving forward.

2.    Under the last administration (Mayor’s Office), seven crime types were measured. With the new administration, there are a new suite of priorities. The strategy is presented with a more outcome focussed plan.

3.    The Mayor of London’s web site details the plan, sets out the intention and the areas the new Mayor of London would like to work in.

4.    The new plan includes the following areas:

·         Tackling violence against women and girls.

·         Standing together against hatred and intolerance.

·         A better Police service for London.

·         A better criminal justice service for London.

·         Keeping children and young people safe.

5.    MOPAC had asked the unit to choose 3 local priorities and these were:

·         Anti-social behaviour

·         Burglary

·         Violence with injuries

            Also 3 main priorities to contribute to London:

·         Tackling violence against women and girls.

·         Working to keep children and young people safe.

·         Standing together against hatred intolerance and extremism.

6.    The unit has put a bid in for funding from MOPAC and the application is for just over £500K per year totalling £1,029M. The funding will enable the unit to purchase services to tackle drugs, to improve the lives of young people, to tackle prostitution via work to deter kerb crawlers to cut off demand for street based prostitution and tackling violence against women and girls.

 

The following questions were taken:

 

Q: You spoke about your aims, but how will you achieve your aims i.e. tackling prostitution, youth violence?

 

A: Locally we have focussed in placing police officers into particular areas such as the Fore Street corridor who are making arrests of working girls. Who have recently tended to be young eastern European women driven by the economics of the crime rather than another motivation although this is based on known cases.

There have been 59 arrests of prostitutes in the last 3 months and the unit now want to focus on kerb crawlers. Kerb crawlers will be offered the opportunity to reduce their penalty by learning about the negative side about people working as prostitutes’ i.e. sexual health, violence, in order to deter men from going to buy that service. This was about behavioural change.

 

Q: You mainly focussed on the working girls. Do you ever investigate if there are any causes i.e. any other person involved in their exploitation?

 

A: Yes, the police do investigate when those girls are arrested. The unit works with immigration and anti-social behaviour officers. The girls are questioned and assessed to see if there are other person’s involved i.e. pimp. This was hard to determine as the girls, when questioned, said that they were making a lot of money which would support them for a long time back home. This was an economic fact.

 

Q: Does prostitution occur because the girls haven’t got a job? Is there any way of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 301.

302.

TACKLING GANGS & SERIOUS YOUTH VIOLENCE pdf icon PDF 289 KB

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

Minutes:

Louise Brown, Team Leader – Anti-Social Behaviour Unit presented this report and highlighted the following:

 

1.    There were two main gangs in the Enfield area:

·         DA – Dem Africans – north end of the borough

·         GMG – Get Money Gang – south end of the borough

            The two gangs operate on the east side of the borough, both top and    bottom.

2.    There is a lot of work going on around these gangs particularly the N9 and N18 area, which is the DA gang area and GMG are predominately around the EN3 post code location.

3.    A large part of the report is given over to some of the work the unit are doing to prevent serious youth violence. This item is also part of the new Crime and Policing plan for London where the focus is on vulnerable young people and preventing those type of crimes. The team are also currently reviewing their gang strategy to reflect the local and regional priorities within Enfield.

4.    As detailed on pages 5 – 6 of the report, Enfield currently uses 4 key elements to tackle serious youth violence and enforcement:

·         Identification

·         Prevention

·         Intervention

·         Enforcement

5.    Page 6 of the report, detailed what is being done as regards these projects.

6.    As detailed on page 7, of the report, work around schools. A large part of this work is about prevention and intervention and one of the projects running at present is the Met Police Project called Operation Crest. Operation Crest officers are attending senior schools and school provision units i.e. Swan Annexe, to work with young people to prevent them from serious youth crime, knife crime and gang culture. This has contributed a lot to prevention and gained valuable feedback from young people.

7.    As detailed on page 8 of the report, one of the units legislative measures is the work being done around Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBO). Working with a number of police teams, that may identify these persons, by looking at preventative measures to detract them from this type of crime. The unit currently has 49 CBO’s, 40 standing ASBO’s and 1 gang injunction, which is part of the old legislation.

8.    The unit are also working with the gangs unit and local ward teams who provide local intelligence regarding that information along with residents. This is a partnership approach to dealing with serious youth violence in Enfield.

9.    As detailed on pages 9 – 10 of the report, the table and map show the change in serious youth violence locally as compared with London Boroughs and the spread of risk across the capital and within Enfield.

 

The following questions were raised:

 

Q: Referring to the Oasis project at the North Middlesex Hospital (A & E), do people have to ask for the service or is it given automatically?

 

A: The youth workers will directly engage with them as soon as that person is able to communicate and liase with them, especially a young person that has been injured, in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 302.

303.

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.

 

1.    He stated that as of today Enfield has an establishment of 555 Police Officers. That includes 16 Police Officers that the Council had bought in specifically in relation to Council housing estates.

2.    As detailed on pages 11 and 12 respectively, the chart on page 11 provides a breakdown of officers, to the end of February 2017, and where they are in the borough. The table on page 12 shows the breakdown of the planned projection , at the end of May 2017, in comparison with a number of other boroughs’ in our current area which is east of London.

3.    The service had, for a number of months, been understrength with only 555 Police officers and is highlighted at the table on page 12 which shows an under strength of 24.5 officers for Enfield i.e. part – time officers, flexible working, etc. This was the projection.

4.    However, Enfield were the most under strength borough in London but this was now Ealing Borough.

5.    There had been a lot of movement out of the service but also a lot of movement in, in terms of new officers coming from training school into the borough.

 

 

304.

UPDATE ON THE EFFECT OF THE 24 HOUR PICCADILLY LINE TUBE pdf icon PDF 9 KB

To receive an update from Superintendent Carl Robinson on the Effect of the 24 Hour Piccadilly Line Tube.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

An update on the effects of the 24 Hour Tube Service  in the Borough was provided by Superintendent Carl Robinson.

 

1.    The original request had been to see if Police recorded crime had gone up, gone down or stayed the same in relation to the opening of the 24 hour tube lines. All the 24 hour tube lines in operation were looked at.

2.    The table on page 15, of the report, looks at  2 years ago, 1 year ago and the period since opening.

3.    The map on page 15, shows a series of different coloured dots which denote 1000 metres around each particular tube station. Each colour represents a tube line.

4.    The overall conclusion of what the statistics are saying is that there is no statistical difference in the opening of the 24 hour tube for all 5 tube lines in operation.

 

The following questions were raised:

 

Q: I live by Arnos Grove Station and have noticed, particularly at weekends, an increase in anti-social behaviour. People urinating in the street, street drinking and drug taking. I think anti-social behaviour and crime is on the increase.

There have also been cases of phone stealing using motor scooters in the area.

 

A: Theft involving mopeds doesn’t affect Enfield in a significant way. It does affect some of the inner London Boroughs’ particularly in Camden, Islington and Hackney, where a number of these incidents occur.

From an Enfield perspective, there had only been a few cases. When this sort of crime does occur, we get as many officers we can into the area to stop and deter it and to try and identify the scooters and stolen property.

 

 

 

305.

WORK PROGRAMME 2017/18

To discuss suggestions for the Work Programme 2017/18.

Minutes:

NOTED

 

1.    As this was the last meeting of the Municipal year and that there may be new members of the panel going forward, this was an opportunity for anybody to put any suggestions forward for the new panel to consider for the new municipal year.

2.    Natalie Sherman (Parent Engagement Panel) stated that her interest is with parents and she wanted parents to take more responsibility and to have more opportunities to access information, so as to help support the Police, the Community and other agencies that are working to prevent youth crime.

It would be helpful to have printed literature, as not all parents are computer literate, or bill board advertising in Enfield Town. This would be a visible presence to state that youth violence was not acceptable and that they are being watched.

3.    Andrea Clemons response that they could both look at how the communication campaign should be rolled out with a view to do more for parents.

4.    Question from the public – How would performance be measured against the new Crime and Police Plan?

Andrea Clemons clarified that they would structure the agenda in order to guide their understanding of how they are achieving their aims. Part of that would be performance.

The plan for London had only recently come out and that she would bring something back to the panel to show how they are going to measure going forward and then follow up with a performance report on the new measures.

ACTION: Andrea Clemons – Head of Community Safety.

 

306.

MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 5 JANUARY 2017 pdf icon PDF 98 KB

To receive and agree the Minutes of the meeting held on 5 January 2017.

Minutes:

AGREED the minutes of the meeting held on 5 January 2017.

 

307.

DATES OF FUTURE MEETINGS

Dates of future meetings will be agreed at full council on 10 May 2017.

 

Minutes:

NOTED that this had been the last meeting of the Panel for the 2016/17 Municipal Year. A new programme of dates for 2017/18 are currently being prepared for inclusion on the Council’s calendar of meetings due to be approved at the Annual Council meeting in May 2017.