Agenda item

To receive a report from Inspector Paul Dwyer.

Inspector Paul Dwyer presented his report and highlighted the following:

·         The report in the agenda details the MPS Safer Schools Officers objectives, the key performance indicators, the structure of a BCU Youth Team and a typical day in the life of an MPS Safer Schools Officer.

·         Paul is the BCU lead for both Enfield and Haringey, there are 4 sergeants, 3 working with secondaries schools split into North, Central and South and 1 sergeant for all primary schools.

·         There are 39 PC’s, 2 of which are allocated to youth engagement and diversion and prevention, 2 PCs work with the volunteer Police cadets which is the main diversion for the MPS.

·         The police cadets have higher than average numbers of BME and vulnerable young people.

·         All secondary schools have a named PC, each PC will have around 5-6 schools assigned to them, with 1 main school. The PC will be expected to know the Head teacher, the senior leadership team and the students and be highly visible in the school.

·         There is one PC allocated to the Pupil Referral Unit.

·         Paul has been in post since January and has met all secondary Head teachers in Enfield

·         Serious youth violence has increased, exploitation and robbery are also issues for young people. These occur across Enfield and all schools will be affected by these issues.

·         Crimes tend not to occur around the school perimeter, but around where pupils congregate 30 minutes after school finishes such as transport hubs, fast food restaurants, Enfield Town and the Hertford Road corridor.

·         It is a very small percentage of young people that cause issues

·         Officers will encourage young people to keep safe and report crimes to the safer schools’ officer, online, safeguarding or trusted leads at schools.

·         They take a multi-pronged approach balancing enforcement, listening and guiding the young person.

·         Exploitation is a big issue training is provided to school staff to raise awareness and know the signs to look out for.

·         Drugs is another problem and lots of money can be earned and this can be a motivator for some young people

·         A lot of work is done with British Transport Police around the key times 3-6pm

·         Shift patterns have changed amongst safer schools’ officers some now work till 10pm

Following issues were raised:

·         Concerns were raised that there had been an increase in robberies in Southgate which may be displacement from Enfield Town where there are Community Patrols. A Street watch scheme will be launched for October half term, this works in a similar way to the Community Patrol, funding has come from MOPAC and is very structured with clear guidance.

·         The police confirmed that Southgate had become an emerging hotspot as had Palmers Green. There had been an arrest in Palmers Green which had reduced robberies, sometimes the arrest of one person can have a big effect.

·         Paul talked about the knives and advised that the cadets regularly undertake knife sweeps on a Saturday. In addition to the work they do on crime prevention and for charity.

Paul was thanked for his presentation.