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)

·         Crime stats

·         Abstractions from Ward teams

Superintendent Chris Jones went through the report in the agenda pack. The following was highlighted:

• The information provided a flavour of activities currently being undertaken by the Neighbourhood Teams
• Operation Boxster works predominately in Fore Street covering Enfield and Haringey targeting street sex workers and the crime associated on the periphery of this activity.
• There are currently 44 identified street sex workers on the North Area. 85 street cautions have been issued in the last six weeks and ten kerb crawlers have been processed in the last two weeks and nine subjects have been issued conditional cautions.
• Monthly diversion courses have been organised using Street Light Foundation UK, whereby offenders must attend a five-hour seminar on the dangers of using sex workers.
• Operation Boxster also covers the more criminal element of brothels. For example, whilst conducting a brothel visit one of the clients at the address was identified as wanted and arrested for a violent robbery in South London and breach of tag.
• This ongoing operation has seen some great work taking place and arrests have tripled.
• Recent figures presented to the Crime Scrutiny Panel showed a 30% reduction in reported Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) calls around the on-street sex workers which demonstrates visible and tangible results.
• With regards to Safer Schools, Officers are back in schools and have been talking to students about how to stay safe online and deal with online bullying. A MET Cyber Champion has been recruited to go into schools to advise and educate students and parents around online safety.
• With the worsening crises around the world there has been a new influx of refugees from Afghanistan. Safer Schools Officer PC Ken Carrol has been working with You vs You to help identify vulnerable people and share with the how to stay safe in a foreign country.
• An update was provided on the work of the Safer Estate Teams which had resulted in some positive outcomes with arrests being made.
• Regularly weapon sweeps are ongoing in open spaces and weapons are often recovered.
• Some fantastic community events had taken place including community engagement days and youth engagement continued with the very successful Cadet Programme which had included a bumper summer of Duke of Edinburgh Award expeditions trying to make up for the lost year of 2020.
• Between the 26^th and 29^th July Enfield and Haringey Cadets took part in a week of activity which had involved weapon sweeps, litter picking and conducting various surveys with the public.
• The top priority for the Safer Neighbourhood Ward teams remains to supress violence. Neighbourhood Officers are out daily conducting weapon sweeps and robbery patrols to detect and deter crime.
• The teams continue to check open park spaces to ensure that young people feel safe when out and about. A lot of females have fed back that they don’t feel safe in certain areas when out walking or jogging. Therefore, Superintendent Jones said that it is imperative that the SNTs are out and about, wearing Hi-Vis jackets so that they are visible and engaging with the local communities
• Three nights of action took place during July and August to disrupt the car meets in Enfield and again this had resulted in some positive outcomes with 12 vehicles being seized, 92 Section 59, anti-social driving warnings issued, and 5 arrests made. These nights of action were a direct neighbourhood led police response, in response to complaints from residents.
• A Catalytic Convertor Marking Event took place on the weekend of 14^th and 15^th August where officers from Upper Edmonton were assisted by the AA for the marking event at Ikea, Glover Drive. 32 vehicles were marked and lots of crime prevention advice given.
• Data was provided for a rolling 12 months from October 2020 on total crimes by ward, Enfield crime types, Monthly I & S calls and stop and search figures.

Following Superintendent’s update, the following comments/questions were raised:

• With regards to confidence and satisfaction this is still quite low especially around the Eastern side of the Borough. Meetings continue to take place with Faith Community Leaders and CAPE Chairs to look at ways of addressing this issue. Better communication of what has been achieved is planned.

• Further information was provided on the marking of Catalytic Convertors and how this scheme works.
• CAPE Chairs raised various concerns with regards to the CAPE meetings. This included police non-attendance, not receiving regular updates and lack of information and organisation. Superintendent Jones re-iterated that it is his expectation that all SNT Sergeants attend their CAPE meetings. He advised that he meets with them regularly to ensure that they are up to date with knowledge and information and he briefs them every two weeks on performance and targets. Supt Jones also confirmed that there is a Ward Improvement Plan refreshing guidance and terms of reference to ensure consistency. All Sergeants have a Ward Improvement Plan which includes functioning CAPE’s, Chairs and programmed meetings etc.
• Supt Jones encouraged the CAPE Chairs to update him regularly and contact him if there are any issues so that he can intervene early and address these. He added that in his twenty-four years of policing he has always maintained that if you get Neighbourhood Policing right, the rest follows.
• Discussions took place on abstractions from the Neighbourhood Ward Teams and the impact of this. This had been evident recently with officers being abstracted locally to police the Insulate Britain and other protests. This has a major impact on resources and response times.
• Information was provided regarding Target establishment around wards and it was confirmed that all wards now had the dedicated numbers of Officers in place with the exception of a shortage of 4/5 School Officers. There would always be a rotation of officers due to resignation, transition and promotion.
• Sergeant Monika Malecka (MPS) updated the Board on some exciting work taking place at Craig Park Youth Centre as a result a specialist pool of funding that had been received.

The Chair thanked Superintendent Jones and Sergeant Malecka for their informative updates.