Agenda item

To receive a report from Andrea Clemons, Head of Community Safety.

Andrea Clemons, Head of Community Safety introduced this report.

NOTED:

·         The refreshed Partnership Plan has been completed and is due to come to the next meeting. The same priorities have been agreed which are:

o   Reducing burglary and keeping people safe at home;

o   Tackling violent crime – in all its forms

o   Keeping young people safe and reducing their risks from crime;

o   Promoting cohesion and tackling hate crime;

o   Dealing with anti-social behaviour.

With the agreement of the Community Safety Partnership a requirement has been added for some additional communication around vehicle crime and a strong partnership focus on tackling illegal drugs.

·         The report provides an update on all crime types. Most crime for the year ending September 2020 are down with the notable exception of Domestic Abuse incidents, Anti-social behaviour, Hate Crime and some types of vehicle crime.

·         Serious Youth Violence has reduced significantly, partly due to Covid and the closure of schools with less people out on the street and there has been some targeted work by the police assisted by partners. However, Enfield has the highest number of victims in London. Serious Youth Violence is a group of crimes that are violence and robbery committed by or on young people aged 19 or under. Knife crime with injury is down by 42.5% in this period. There has recently been a report into Stop and Search with 11 recommendations that are being adopted by the MPS with an action plan to report changes via the local community monitoring group.

·         Violence against women and girls and domestic abuse with injury has remained static. However, incidents of domestic abuse have gone up by almost 9%. During lockdown, from 1 May the Director of Children’s Services has worked in partnership to develop a Domestic Abuse Hub where members of the public can call directly to ask for help. The Hub has seen an increasing number of referrals.

·         Hate Crime has risen by 46% over the year to September 2020 and this is predominately racist and religious motivated crime. An analyst has been tasked with looking into this which found that in the largest category these were vitriolic neighbourhood disputes.

·         Anti-social behaviour reports rose by 65.5% increase during the last 12 months. This is already a high-volume crime. In the main these have been noncompliance with Covid restrictions, neighbourhood disputes and disorders including unlicensed music events.

·         As bonfire night approaches working in partnership with the police to develop contact points for this and during the upcoming weekend for the local authority and the police to ensure that lines of communication are open to ensure the best response.

·         Recently received verification of extension of funding from the GLA, this is used to fund a number of interventions to drive forward the partnership plan. Some examples of this are OWL scheme, mentoring for young people, some targeted outreach including A & E and domestic advocates.

Questions, comments and queries:

1.    Members suggested that it would be helpful for future reports in the summary points on the first page a headline level reason for the increases or decreases would be helpful. It would also be helpful if actual figures could be provided with percentages. Andrea Clemons confirmed that these changes could be made for the next report to the committee.

2.    Following concerns raised by a member on animal cruelty. It was confirmed that the remit that is followed is to report back on the priority areas for the Safer & Stronger Communities Board and animal cruelty is not one of the limited priorities at present.

3.    Members raised concern as to whether we are confident that we are capturing crimes reporting domestic abuse incidents effectively at present given lockdown. The domestic abuse hub was intended to augment the other services that were there as well. This is additional and has dedicated people taking calls with access to housing and social work experts to help ensure that when an enquiry comes in that it is dealt with robustly and efficiently. There are also funded domestic violence advocates that sit within council housing services. There has been publicity around the hub. There is another poster campaign due to go out prior to Christmas. The Christmas, new year holiday period is traditionally and historically a peak period. The end of November is White Ribbon Day where a conference would have been held for professionals around developments around tackling domestic abuse. The focus instead is on activities to support 16 days of action starting on the 25 November.

4.    Serious Youth Violence in Enfield Highway appears to stand out what is happening to address this and why is this the case? This area has come up at tasking meetings as an area that is growing slightly. Through the North Area Violence reduction group (which is a multi-agency group spanning both boroughs) looking at some analysis for hotspots, will need to look at this ward in more detail to gain understanding and intelligence on the problem.

5.    Following recent newsletter from Southgate showing significant increases in incidents of catalytic converter theft. Is there any data to indicate whether this is random across the borough or ward specific or certain cars are targeted? Members were advised that recently a significant arrest has been made of somebody removing catalytic converters. The police advised that there are organised criminal networks that commit this crime on mass. This has been picked up by one of the Mets central teams. This is not unique to Enfield most London boroughs are having these waves of thefts. The vehicles targeted would need to be clarified. A catalytic converter can be removed within 15 seconds making this very tricky to deal with. There have also been other recent arrests which are believed to be linked to organised crime group. Offenders take 15-20 in a day and then remove to another London area.

Officers were thanked for their presentation.