Agenda item

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)

·         Ward-based stats

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

Superintendent Chris Jones, Acting Chief Inspector Erica Crawshaw and went through the report in the agenda pack. The following was highlighted:

·         The report includes details of weapons taken off the streets, a local overview, basic crime statistics and I & S calls

·         Operation Boxster has been reinvigorated and a new team has now started. The report highlights some of the work undertaken.

·         Over the last couple of nights, a significant arrest has been made of a male who was in possession of a loaded firearm. The team is also looking at coercive control behaviour. A significant arrest has been made for coercive control relating to prostitution. There is a mixture of sex workers in the area; some are class A drug dependent, and some have been trafficked through organised crime.

·         In the period 15 March to the 11 April the team have made 10 arrests, conducted 49 Stop & Searches and completed 30 Intel Reports. The Intel Reports are fed into the wider structure to build a bigger intelligence picture.

·         The pack included images of items that had been seized through Operation Boxster, the Safer Estates Team, the Safer Schools team and through weapons sweeps with the volunteer police cadets.

·         Safer Estates Team, Erica Crawshaw is now the acting Chief Inspector for Neighbourhoods and have also recruited a sergeant to the team. During the last three months the team have carried out 120 Stop & Search, 49 arrests and a large quantity of Heroin, cocaine and Cannabis, over £10,000 of assets, three firearms and 22 weapons have been seized.

·         Project Taipan is linking the drugs intelligence from communities, trying to win trust and confidence back from members of the community who may have provided information in the past on drugs and did not feel that is was being joined together properly or exploring all routes of enquiry. This is working very well linking intelligence across Enfield and Haringey.

·         Safer Schools is going through a transition period at present due to a rotation of staff. There has been a huge intake of staff which has presented challenges in respect of experience levels and ensuring that the new officers have guidance and support. This has also released a lot of experienced officers who had been accepted for specialist roles and were waiting for replacement officers so that they could be released. Schools for the last month and a half have had their numbers reduced. However, by the 26 May all posts will be filled again with officers who have committed to at least a school academic year. The work undertaken is detailed in the report. Coming out of lockdown there is an increase in wellbeing and child and adolescent mental health, but also some disclosures around sexual exploitation and sexting, amongst others which had been bottled up with young people now having the opportunity to speak to a trusted adult.

·         Slide 16 provided details of some of the lessons and interactions the team carry out in schools mainly targeting and making young people aware that the police are recruiting and are particularly targeting underrepresented community groups. There are a number of pathways open to them including an academic pathway through a degree that the police will fund and an apprentice scheme.

·         The police Cadets assist with ceremonial events, communication with the Youth Independent Advisory Group and help to navigate tricky policing issues around Covid and Stop and Search and Black Lives Matter. They also help with weapons sweeps in public areas.

·         Details of Youth Engagement Referral Scheme and some other engagement activity are detailed on page 18-21 of the reports pack. There are 2 police officers for engagement in Haringey and Enfield and it is hoped to increase this to 2 per borough over the next 12 months.

·         The Enfield crime count is consistently going down some of this will be due to Covid. Whilst some crimes have gone down other crimes have gone up such as fraud, unlicensed music events, breach of Covid regulations and a rise in violence between criminals as the drug supply has reduced during lockdown.

·         The I and S calls figures for North Area showed that there had not been much change year on year. I calls are emergency calls to be reached within 15 minutes and S calls are soon calls to be reached within one hour. The Chair commented that these figures were originally requested as there was a concern that the merge with Haringey would disproportionally affect Enfield as the only custody suite is in Wood Green. However, this does not appear to be the case.

·         Details were also provided on Operation Cubone, this is an ongoing operation run by local officers with the aim of reducing violent and drug related crime in Edmonton. The Fore Street corridor is identified as a hotspot. This includes targeted Days of Action working with British Transport Police, Op Servators (officers trained in behaviour) and a Dog Unit. Since the operation started there have been over 40 Stop & searches, Arrests for possession with intent to supply class A & B, attempted GBH, handling stolen goods and numerous weapons have been taken off the streets.

·         Last week the police had a Motor Vehicle Week of Action for Catalytic Convertors. Enfield is one of the worse areas in London for Catalytic Convertor thefts particularly around Upper Edmonton/ Glover Drive areas. The police were provided with specialist property marking kits donated by Toyota. Specifically looking at Toyota, Honda and Lexus vehicles are being targeted. Some of the precious metals within the Catalytic convertor are at present more valuable than gold. 100 Catalytic convertors were marked up with smart water kits, further kits have been received so will be looking to do further vehicle marking. 150 crime prevention packs were sent out, 10 outstanding suspect arrest enquiries conducted and visited 6 Metal Scrap yards.

·         How are the Safer Schools team going to nurture continuation of relationships if the Safer Schools officers are only in place for one academic year? It was advised that this can be a difficult role and is not suited to all officers, can be lonely experience and officers are not always fully accepted by the senior management teams at schools. At the May, 15 probationary officers with 18-19 months experience will be coming into the team. They will be given extra training and support and it is expected that some of these officers will stay longer than an academic year.

·         The Chair raised that Chase Ward undertook a weapon sweep just before lockdown. There is a lot of high vis jackets that Chase team in the warmer weather working with their Safer Neighbourhood teams undertaking local weapon sweeps empowering local people. It was also mentioned that residents often approach those undertaking the sweeps with other concerns.

·         An update was provided on Police Encounter Panels. This is a police initiative which has come from the Use of Force Panel groups put in place after the George Floyd murder to hear concerns on encounters with the police which may turn into a physical encounter. The BCU Commander will co-chair with another senior community stakeholder or community member and they will formulate a panel which will meet every month. The panel from either the co-chair or the BCU Commander can also be convened in exceptional circumstances. For example, if there's a viral video going around in Enfield around a police encounter with a member of the public which is causing concern or community unrest. At this the panel can view the body worn video and discuss at BCU Commander or at the very least a Superintendent level and articulate any concerns. It is not just around stop and search, could be a 163 traffic stop and any encounter with police which someone is unhappy with that's gone viral. The idea is that if you belong to the SNB or your CAPE panel chair, or you're a member of the IAG or your member of the CMG that you can potentially be part of this panel. It is not excluding, not exclusive to the other panels or the other community members that participate in police engagement. North Area, Central East and South Area are the three BCU’s leading on this and are the pathway finders. Once this has been tested for any anomalies or any teething issues or any problems then this will be rolled out across the Met. Consultation has gone out to SNB’s, IAG’s for their feedback.

·         A query was raised on the questionnaire that went out to community members. That a lot of this information didn't appear on the questionnaire, so it looked as though the members had been picked from anywhere It did not state where the trusted members were going to come and is not clear from the survey. The survey is centrally driven and managed. Community members have raised queries on why they have been left out.  The Survey did say you would have to sign confidentiality agreements but was not clear whether it was open to anyone. The predominate issues around communication are with young black men. The object is to not to exclude other groups from the Panel such as the Youth Advisory Group. There will be some form of background checks such as national police database check. Superintendent Jones will provide feedback on this to the central team. The Chair requested that once this is up and running for a while that feedback is provided to the SNB.

·         An update was provided on changes to CAPE promises. The promises are now called priorities. Each Panel will have 3 priorities. Priority number 1 will be set by the Met and is to include violence or drives of violence. The remaining 2 priorities will be set by the ward panel. The Panel will review and consider the crime types and issues affecting the local community and consider the information gathered through other ward engagement and policing activities within the community and prioritise issues that cause the most risk or harm. The SNT officer must as a minimum standard share; data graphs or maps of violent crime, total crimes or violent crimes within a ward or filtered to crime types, robbery, theft, person burglary, theft of motor vehicle, theft from motor vehicle data as appropriate, crime data specific to the ward and ASB data specific to the ward. There will also be a leaflet shortly.

·         The Chair commented that CAPES vary hugely across the Met in quality of the members and the information being received. It was suggested that in the future a survey is undertaken with each of the CAPE Chairs and CAPE sergeants on how the CAPE is functioning

·         Team staffing, additional officers joining in May 9 will be coming to the wards as part of their probationer pathway. The attachment to neighbourhoods is their last attachment. At the end of July there will be a further 23 probationers to be split between Enfield and Haringey.