Agenda item

Examination of crime statistics received from MOPAC to include:

a)    Recorded Crime

b)    Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB)

c)    Public Confidence & Victim Satisfaction

d)    Complaints against Borough Officers/ Staff

e)    Stop and Search

Chief Inspector Ian Kibblewhite presented the MOPAC and Police data on the following:

·         Recorded Crime. 

·         Anti-Social Behaviour

·         Public Confidence & Victim Satisfaction

·         Complaints against Borough Officers /Staff

·         Stop and Search

·         Independent Custody Visitor Scheme Data

He highlighted key issues and the group raised a number of points as follows –

Recorded Crime.  Using the Borough police data (dashboard).  The total offences, for Enfield are generally showing decreases against the rolling 12 month figures and also a reduction for the MOPAC challenge of sustained 20% reduction by March 2016. 

This applies to Burglary (-9.8%), Robbery (-11.1%), Theft from Motor vehicle (-39.1%) Theft of Motor Vehicle (-19.2%), and theft from person (-19.6%). The two crime types that show an increase are Criminal damage (+4.7%) and Violence with Injury (+20.2%). 

The ‘Sanction Detections’ details give the success rate for clearing cases.  However a number of categories show a decrease in the clearing rate from last year.  Chief Inspector Kibblewhite pointed out that  it is no longer possible for figures to include cases where previous incidents could be taken into consideration, therefore it is no longer possible to show improved detection levels by these means.

The following issues were raised –

• CCC Despatch calls refers to ‘I Calls’ where police should arrive within 15 minutes of a call being made and ‘S Calls’ where police should arrive within 60 minutes (i.e. for less urgent cases).  Performance for ‘I Calls’ are  91.8%, the same as for the previous 12 month period and for ‘S Calls’ 90.1% which is slightly lower than the previous 12 month period of 91.3%.
• The total number of notifiable offences have reduced over the previous 12 months by 2.5%.  Victim based offences have reduced from last year by 0.3%.
• It was confirmed that ‘hate crime’ is not included as one of the ‘MOPAC 7’ list of categories of offences.  MOPAC data on this is included in the MOPAC report (circulated with the agenda) and a chart giving further information on this crime has been provided by Sandeep Broca (Community Safety Information Manager) which is attached to the minutes.
• It was thought the increase in the number of ‘hate crimes’ reported, may partly be attributed to greater confidence in the reporting systems.  As with cases of domestic abuse D I Kibblewhite stressed the importance of trying to make an arrest at the time the incident is reported as often victims are unwilling to give a statement at a later time.

Stop & Search

The success rate for March shows that 26% of searches in Enfield resulted in an arrest, with 29% of searches for stolen property successful, and 16% of weapon searches successful.  The aim is to concentrate searches on the right people i.e ‘quality rather than quantity’. The challenge for the police in conducting stop & search is in finding weapons, and usually these were as a result of information already received.  Chief Inspector Kibblewhite referred to the Stop and Search monitoring group which was being reformed and meetings arranged, he said these would be taking place in schools and youth clubs.

Ruth Ward would be invited to attend one of the meetings with young people in the future.  Jane Richards asked if training could also cover young people with special needs.

Independent Custody Visitor Scheme

Peter Waterhouse, from the Independent Custody Visitors Panel said he was disappointed that two visits scheduled for the ICV did not take place, however reminder messages have now been reintroduced.  He said there had not been any problems encountered during visits and custody staff had been helpful.

Anti-Social Behaviour

ASB is continuing to show a reduction against the previous 12 months, down by 28.3%, repeat callers down by 21.5%.  The police are progressing an ASB and Violence reduction plan for the borough over the summer and autumn period.  This will be in conjunction with ‘Operation Equinox’, which targets the Edmonton Green area.

It was asked if the changes for implementing dispersal zones have been beneficial.  Chief Inspector Kibblewhite said it is easier and quicker now for dispersal zones to be implemented, as it is no longer necessary to have a lengthy consultation period beforehand.  Information is now sent to Ward Councillors and in future he will also contact the CAPE Chairs.  It was requested that the number of dispersal zones put into effect in the borough will be reported to future SNB meetings.  A summary about the dispersal zones will be shared with the cluster groups.

Public Confidence & Victim Satisfaction

The challenge is to increase public confidence by 20%.  Public confidence and victim satisfaction in Enfield, is given overall as 67%. The cluster with most issues is Edmonton and South where satisfaction figures are approximately10% lower than the rest of the borough. The aim is to try to improve confidence in the Edmonton area.  Money has been spent on ‘smart water’ (i.e property marking) from June this year when 9,000 addresses will be visited and smart water applied. Additional officers are to be used for this operation.  It is anticipated that this should lead to overall crime reduction and should also hopefully improve public confidence.

There is a monthly Confidence and Satisfaction Board where an ‘Action Plan’ is progressed.  Superintendent Carl Robinson has combined responsibility for Confidence and Satisfaction since January 2015.  Areas for improvement includes providing practical help to victims and providing them with ‘victim care cards’.  It was thought important for people to be kept informed of what is happening and to manage their expectations,  this includes the police giving realistic information from the outset.  CI Kibblewhite said every victim of burglary should be visited and given a crime reference number. 

Vicky Dungate asked if she could be sent a copy of a ‘victim care card’

She referred to a victim of burglary who lived in a sheltered block who had not received a visit from the police. She thought a visit and reassurance given by a police officer would have been of great benefit to him.   CI Kibblewhite agreed that a visit should have been made. He said visits were particularly important for vulnerable people.  He mentioned that visits were made to the neighbours of crime victims, with the objective that  CCTV cameras may be in use and evidence captured or witnesses identified.

It was pointed out, by one of the Cape Chairs, that it may be difficult to improve ‘overall satisfaction with the police’ rate to reach the 20% target as some people may have negative attitudes to the police which are unlikely to change.  It was agreed that this was a difficult category to measure.  Bradley Few said this was an aspirational target which had not been measured previously.  CI Kibblewhite said it was important for people to be satisfied with the way a situation has been handled and therefore it is advisable for a victim of crime to be notified if someone has been charged/ convicted.  Latest figure shows that 95% of victims are being updated.

Complaints against Police

There are 36 complaints cases currently open, against the police in Enfield. The average time to deal with a case has been reduced from 60 days in February to 52 days. The number of complaints has increased with 144 cases in the previous 12 months.  The majority of cases state that there had been a failure in duty, it was thought this may be due to people not being kept up to date on progress with the investigation.