Agenda item - EXAMINATION OF CRIME STATISTICS

Agenda item

EXAMINATION OF CRIME STATISTICS

Examination of crime statistics received:

·         Current and planned police operations

·         Confidence and satisfaction

·         Target establishment on CAPE’s (including staff changes, vacant posts, anticipated timelines for replacement, etc)

·         Response Times, both I & S calls in Enfield and Haringey

 

Minutes:

Chief Inspector Alex Kay presented his report and highlighted the following:

·         The stats had been presented in a new format and provided by the police. These show where Enfield sits in relation to other London boroughs to provide a wider context.

·         A new Superintendent Chris Jones is now in place and he has changed the structure within the BCU. There used to be an Inspector for Enfield, an Inspector for Haringey and an inspector covering both boroughs. The change now is to dedicated teams in both boroughs. Enfield has an inspector for Community (Debbie Kneebone-will be Erica Crawshaw when she returns from maternity leave) and an Inspector for schools Chris Byrne with the expectation of increased joined working between these areas.

·         Issues for the North Area (Enfield) are robberies (2nd in London) and violent offences (half of all of these are linked to robberies). There is a team of 12 officers (across both boroughs) patrolling hotspots to drive down robberies.

·         The largest number of victims of robbery are school children. School children will usually have technology on them making them more vulnerable to robbery. Love my doorstep have been working with safer schools’ officers; school children are being encouraged to think about safer routes home.

·         There is also some central support around violence and gangs and some improvement has been seen on this.

·         Enfield has 2 dedicated community support officers focussing on burglary prevention.

·         The main emphasis at present is on burglary and robbery.

·         Examples of some recent operations and general updates was provided:

o   In Lower Edmonton, £17.5k funding had been received to work with vulnerable young people at Edmonton Eagles boxing club, this will also help in building relationships with the police A warrant had been issued for drugs before Christmas and 3 dogs had been rescued.

o   Edmonton Green 989 packets of illegal cigarettes seized in a successful police operation

o   In Enfield Town there is a focus on pick pocketing and cashpoints

o   Upper Edmonton, there is a focus on prostitution involving partnership working with the local authority seeking longer term solutions

o   Southgate, there is a focus on robberies around Southgate Circus and the college

o   Cockfosters, there is a focus on burglary in Hadley Wood with officers working till 4am

o   Southbury, there has been a focus on the A10, ASB and taking kitchen knives off retail display. A member raised concerns of burglary particularly on roads that back onto parks and felt that this should also be a focus.

o   Southgate Green, there has been 2 very serious incidents recently which has caused a great deal of concern and fear in the community.

·         This led to a wider discussion on how partner messages are received and the importance of these. CI Kay will raise this at the response team meeting next week.

·         Discussions held around how communication could be used through various channels that could provide reassure such as through social media, Love Your doorstep, Twitter, OWL (once rolled out in Enfield) and Next Door. The police contact points are starting to be more used

·         It was mentioned that there could be a complacency from older people with regards to their own safety as often by nature they are very trusting and do not on the whole use social media so would not receive any messages on these platforms.

·         Crimes tends to go in cycles and we are currently experiencing an increased crime cycle as is London. Enfield has seen an 8.4% increase in all total notifiable offences which ranks Enfield as 12th in London.

·         Burglary- Enfield is 2nd highest in London. This is a significant issue that the police will be focussing on over the next 12 months

·         Robbery- there has been an increase of 39% in the last rolling 12 months.

·         This led to a wider discussion on Safer schools’ officers and the potential for joined working with Safer Transport officers and schools’ staff. It was felt it would be helpful if the Safer schools’ officers could attend CAPE’s although noted that as these officers are shared between schools and sometimes wards this might be difficult. It was suggested that the Safer schools’ officers could offer drop in sessions for parents.

·         Schools’ officers must be out and around schools and visible between 3pm and 5pm on school days.

·         In the past it was felt this worked better and that there were joint patrols with the SNT’s and the Safer schools’ officers. It is important to maximise resources.

·         It was noted that colleges do not have safer schools’ officers.

·         Abstractions are being monitored as this was raised as a concern. Although CI Kay advised sometimes this cannot be avoided if for example there has been a very serious incident.

·         Violence with injury the increase is a concern whilst in line with London overall this is still a significant issue

·         Knife crime this tends to be located around and in gangs. Lots of weapon sweeps being undertaken

·         Hate crime has increased although these numbers are relatively low except anti-Semitic although these are still low numbers. Reporting of hate crime is low and it was raised that there have been issues with the quality of service received.

·         I and S Calls – more work is needed on the S (significant) calls which have a target response time of one hour.

·         Stop and Search, all are videoed, and the positive outcome rate in Enfield is 22%, in the Met it is between 18-20 so this is being used correctly.

·         Satisfaction there are no new figures since the last time this information was provided.

·         The theft of catalytic converters was raised with certain models being targeted. This is an issue in Winchmore Hill where vehicle crime is one of the priorities.  It was raised that there had been multiple incidents in one road in Southbury ward.

Target establishment all SNT should be there or thereabouts there is a priority on filling vacancies. CI Kay advised that following our local resource planning meeting, the following is the current status for Enfield safer neighbourhoods. We anticipate all vacancies being filled at our February meeting, as more officers are in the pipeline to join the Borough.

1 x PC Vacancy on Enfield Estates Team (Funded)

1 x PC Vacancy on Southbury Ward

1 x PC Vacancy on Turkey Street Ward

1 x PC Vacancy on Lower Edmonton Ward

 

The below list are Wards that are oversubscribed;

1 x PC extra on Enfield Lock Ward

1 x PC extra on Winchmore Hill Ward

1 x PC extra on Edmonton Green Ward

1 x PCSO extra on Edmonton Green Ward

 

CI Kay was thanked for his report.

 

Supporting documents: