Agenda item

To receive an update on police operations on knife crime from Detective Superintendent Tony Kelly.

RECEIVED a report from Detective Superintendent Tony Kelly on Enfield Policing Response to Knife Crime and highlighted the following:

i)                 Knife enabled crime and in particular knife crime injuries on victims under 25 has risen steeply across London, but perhaps none more so than in Enfield.

ii)               It should be recognised however that some of the increase in knife crime is because the Police are arresting more people with knives and taking knives off the street (when someone is arrested with a knife the Police create an offence which then impacts on the figures). Detective Superintendent felt it was important to make this observation as these arrests are positive and will result in a reduction in crime.

iii)              In order to address the knife issue Operation Bremont began running from 1 May 2017. Originally intended to be an 8 week plan it has now continued for 10 months in a number of developed iterations, as the intelligence picture has changed. It will also continue to do so until at least March 2018.

iv)             The plan seeks to address the problem under for strands; Prevent, Protect, Prepare and Pursue.

v)               From 1 May 2017 until 2 July 2017 Operation Bremont 1 saw intense focus utilising off borough resources. This was in response to the rapid growth of offences and it became apparent that the underlying cause of the majority of the offences was linked to the on and off street sales of drugs.

vi)             Tactics that were particularly successful were stop and search, weapons sweeps, and pulse patrols. There was also the conclusion of a series of school presentations.

vii)            This period saw a significant increase in injury to under 25’s, whilst overall knife crime was below that of the NPS trend.

viii)           Further information and figures were then presented in relation to Operation Bremont 2, 3 and 4 and comparisons in the data were made.

ix)             Discussions then took place regarding the Overview Partnerships Tactics. This included Enforcement, Prevention and Engagement work particularly around Schools, Licensing, ASB, Knife Wands and Knife Arches.

The following comments and questions were raised:

Councillor Lappage asked what was happening in the Police mind-set regarding publicity campaigns around stopping carrying knives etc. She felt that there needed to be a lot more work around this issue as something needed to be done urgently as the people of Enfield are beginning to feel very unsafe.

Detective Superintendent Kelly agreed that as a whole community engagement is not great at the moment and there definitely needs to be a lot more work and time invested in this area as it is imperative to get out and reach the people that can engage with the young people involved in crime.

Concerns were raised about young people often being excluded from school and sent out onto the streets where they then get into further trouble and often become involved in crime. Are there any initiatives in place to deal with this?

Detective Superintendent Kelly said this was a very good point and again and are in which more work needed to be done. The Police Exploitation Team are currently looking into working much more closely with schools, social services etc.

Members agreed that the Police are only one aspect of a much larger authority when attempting to deal with this problem. There needs to be a
co-ordinated approach between the Police, Local Authority, NHS, Schools, Social Services and other partnerships.

Further in-depth conversations then took place about the new Policing Model for London Plan and the proposed merger between Enfield and Haringey. Although the final details were not yet available, it was reported that the pilot merges that have already taken place have been considered successful, lessons have been learnt and it was hoped that as a result of this services across Enfield and Haringey would improve when both boroughs merged.

Detective Superintendent Kelly agreed to come back once the plan has been finalised to brief the panel accordingly.

Action: Detective Superintendent Kelly

It was also felt that it would be useful to include Police Response Times in future statistics presented to the panel.

Action: Detective Superintendent Kelly/Susan O’Connell