The Scrutiny Panel will hear from the Cabinet Member and officers and Superintendent Chris Jones outlining priorities and areas
of challenge:
Cabinet Members and Officers will be asked to leave the meeting at this
point.
Minutes:
The Chair invited the Cabinet Member for Community Safety & Cohesion, Cllr Nneka Keazor to outline her priorities for the coming year.
Cllr Keazor highlighted the following:
Superintendent Chris Jones was then invited to provide priorities from a police perspective. He highlighted the following suggestions:
Committee Members raised the following comments and questions:
· A year of lockdown has seen different trends emerge, differences are expected when looking on year on year performance. What consideration has been taken on how this will be measured and what challenges are expected as lockdown measures ease? Superintendent Jones advises that violence including domestic violence remains the Met’s number one priority. During lockdown there has been increases in violent offences around the supply of and access to drugs. If all lockdown measure end on the 21 June there will be resourcing pressure on policing the number of events that will open up both in Central London and locally. The Cabinet Member advised there has been a significant decrease in youth crime due to the lockdowns. Across London there has been a decrease. Unfortunately, Enfield still has the highest level of serious youth violence. She will continue to lobby for additional funding to support young people and to continue investment in the youth Development service and outreach team. It is believed that the increases seen in ASB and Hate Crime are increases in reporting rather than in the activity itself, this will need to be explored further.
· A comment was made that there must be measurable evidence of progress to see effectiveness and would be helpful to see this data. Members were advised that reports come to the panel on performance management.
· What can be done to build upon Community Patrols working with the police, how can this be extended and progressed? Community Patrol has been successful, and it is helpful for public and partners to create the extra guardianship particularly in public places and key transport hubs. The Met have a central recruitment of Met community volunteers. During the pandemic a number of furloughed staff volunteered to assist the police. The Cabinet Member confirmed that extra cctv has been put in to help keep young people safe around schools. A number of schools have contacted to see if they can be supported with cctv. There is a proactive individual in Southgate in developing business watch and community patrols, the council is looking to see if this could be supported by way of funding some vetting checks.
· A comment was made that street lighting needs to be looked at, ensuring bulbs replaced and shrubs do not obscure. Residents have commented to members that levels of street lighting are too low and women feel unsafe. The residents felt that the streetlights are lower than in Haringey. It was also raised that lighting is an issue along the Ivy Estate in Southgate. Officers advised that if the panel wished to look at street lighting colleagues from the Place department could provide information on this. There would be significant resource implications. It was not clear whether lighting effects crime or just makes people feel safer.
· It was raised that Snells Park, Hedge Lane regularly fills up with condoms near residents’ homes, a physical patrol would assist. It was felt that prostitution can be displaced between Tottenham, Edmonton and Ponders End. Superintendent Jones confirmed that Operation Boxster is a permanent team and that they follow the issues around locations. This team deals with the issues around asb, safeguarding for the female sex workers and deal with organised crime element. It is believed that Enfield is the only borough that has a dedicated sex worker team from the neighbourhood. The policing shifts have been changed to replicate the problem.
· It is important to engage and involve the community and involvement with the churches. The police have reached out to faith leaders in the Edmonton and the east of the borough.
· Domestic Abuse is a big concern
· What can the council do by itself and affect what happens in terms of crime and asb? Where there are LTN schemes in place has this had an effect in crime? A report on the scheme in Bowes is going to Cabinet next week. If LTN’s are to be rolled out what will be the effect on crime? Has this caused either the Ambulance or police service any issues? Some Police officers have mentioned to councillors that LTN’s have caused some troubles.
· The local authority funded police officers- how successful are they, are the council involved in how they are used and are they taken away for other things. It was confirmed that these officers work on priority estates and have achieved very good results. This team is one of the best performing teams in the whole of Enfield and Haringey. They are ring fenced officers so will not be deployed elsewhere. The local authority and the police have a very strong relationship. There are 2 working meetings a week with discussions on how they are deployed. There will be community engagement dates on particular estates once arranged these will be shared with the panel.
· A comment was made on the focus of youth centres, Alan Pullinger in Southgate is this widely used and promoted? Officers could provide information on how the council uses resources to try to prevent young people getting involved in crime this could be provided, such as how these resources are spent. Examples were provided such as the Young Londoners Fund, NEXUS programme, Summer University, and a holiday activities and food programme will be rolled out shortly across the summer
· What is the relationship between the Transport police and the Met police particularly important in transport hubs? Members were advised that every two weeks there is a tactical meeting including representatives from the local authority to discuss trends across the borough. They also attend a security review meeting around counter terrorism providing updates on the operations they are undertaking.
· Concerns were expressed on E scooters, given they are illegal and sold without licence can the police not just stop people and remove them? It was acknowledged that this is challenging. 6 London boroughs are trialling a scheme on this. The police do take action locally where officers have time to deal, however other crimes may need to take priority.
· Comments were made on Deliveroo/ Just eat drivers clogging on roads and on pavements in certain locations. Superintendent Jones agreed to raise this with the neighbourhood teams. The traffic police could possibly be asked to also look at this
· Concerns were raised on Catalytic convertor theft and the organised crime element that sits behind this. There have been initiatives around this including property marking days. There is a Met central operation targeted on this organised crime.
· Cybercrime and cyberbullying were also raised. Safer schools’ officers were concentrating on this during lockdown.
· Hate Crime particularly anti-Semitic crime also an issue. Members were advised that a new hate crime co-ordinator has been recruited. There have been rises in lockdown aggravated neighbour disputes which have then turned into a racial nature.