Agenda item

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

RECEIVED an update on the Enfield Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour Performance Data from Sandeep Broca, Youth Crime Analyst.

NOTED:

(i)            ASB calls, Burglary, Theft from Person, Robbery, Theft from Motor vehicles, Theft of Motor Vehicles and overall Serious Acquisitive Crime were all experiencing reductions in the rolling 12 months to 13^th November 2014;

(ii)          There had been a large increase in Police referrals to MARAC (Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference). This had been partially due to improvements to the systems through which referrals were made;

(iii)         A significant increase in knife injuries had been noted across the borough in recent months;

(iv)         Two of the seven MOPAC (Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime) indicators were currently experiencing increases in the 12 months rolling (Criminal Damage +3.6% and Violence with Injury +24.1%). Overall, MOPAC seven crime types were experiencing a -8.5% decrease in the rolling 12 months to date;

(v)          For the 12 months to November 2014, Enfield was one of only seven London boroughs experiencing an increase in Total Notifiable Offences (+0.2%). London overall had experienced a decrease in crime over this same period of approximately -4.2%;

(vi)         Sandeep then provided Performance Overview Data for the MOPAC 7 and SSCB priorities. He also went through the London Borough Ranking Tables for MOPAC 7 & Total Notifiable Offences which detailed percentage changes. He was pleased to report that Enfield were slowly but surely creeping up both tables and these increases had happened at the same time as extra resources had been received to tackle problems in the borough;

(vii)        Members were then provided with detailed information and figures for Serious Acquisitive Crime (SAC) which included Robbery, Vehicle Crime and Burglary Dwelling. Sandeep also provided information on Violence Against Women & Girls (VAWG) and Serious Youth Violence;

(viii)      Reported Domestic Abuse Violence with Injury offences had risen by +31.3% over the past 12 months (210 additional reports to police). There had also been a significant increase in the number of MARAC referrals made by police and partnership agencies over the past year;

(ix)         With regards to Serious Youth Violence this continued to be a very challenging piece of work. Enfield was currently experiencing a +21.4% increase in the rolling 12-months and a -13.0% reduction compared to 2011/12. London had experienced an overall increase of 9.5% in the past 12-months;

(x)          Enfield was one of the top 10 highest percentage increase boroughs for Serious Youth Violence (SYV) over the past 12 months. Neighbouring boroughs Haringey and Waltham Forest were experiencing larges increases, as well as most other North and Central London boroughs.

Following Sandeep’s update the following comments/questions were raised:

(a)  Councillor Hamilton was concerned by the Violence with Injury figures. She felt it would be useful to see a separation of figures for Domestic Violence with Injury. Sandeep agreed to provide this.

Action: Sandeep Broca

(b)  Questions were raised as to how Waltham Forest, an adjoining borough, was doing so much better than Enfield in the MOPAC 7 Crime Table and way better in the Total Notifiable Offences Table. Discussions also took place regarding the Serious Youth Violence Volume Change Map;

(c)  The Chair was keen to understand how boroughs such as Southwark, Lambeth and Lewisham were producing much better results than Enfield;

(d)  Andrea Clemons responded by explaining that there was a fair amount of work taking place with partners (such as Public Health partners) and other agencies to look at these issues. The fortnightly Gang Partnership Group was carrying out a piece of work to look and how/why boroughs such as Lambeth, Lewisham etc were achieving much better results than Enfield. Andrea would feedback the findings of this piece of work to the Panel once it had been completed.

Action: Andrea Clemons

(e)  Andrea went on to say that Enfield now had good links with the NHS National Commissioners and were making good strides in addressing the above issues;

(f)   Councillor Hasan asked if any research was carried out to ascertain why the crimes took place in the first place. Andrea advised that various partnership work was taking place to unravel these sorts of questions and a lot of additional work was taking place in schools to educate young people at the earliest opportunity possible;

(g)  Councillor David-Sanders asked whether any trends were being recognised around hate crimes and were these coming from younger people, certain areas etc. Sandeep said that work was ongoing to encourage victims to report this type of hate crime. There had been quite an assertive approach to address this issue particularly around young people and the education perspective. It was however another challenging piece of work;

(h)  Councillor Hamilton was concerned that in Wards such as Enfield Lock and Highway from what she heard and witnessed crime appeared to be on the increase. She was therefore interested to know how this was being addressed;

(i)    Andrea Clemons responded that it could be very hard to address certain issues as, if people did not report the crime then there were no figures/evidence to refer to when sitting with the Borough Commander in an attempt to request additional funding. Andrea asked that Councillors strongly encouraged the residents of their Wards to report crime.

(j)    Councillor Hamilton said that she would be interested to see figures per Ward on Violence with Injury.

Action: Andrea/Sandeep

The Chair thanked Andrea and Sandeep for the information provided and looked forward to receiving further updates at future meetings.