Agenda item

To receive the report of Andrea Clemons, Head of Community Safety and

Suj Ponnampalam, Prevent Programme Manager.

Suj Ponnampalam, Prevent Programme Manager presented the report highlighting the following:

i)             The Enfield Safer and Stronger Communities Board (SSCB) has given priority to tackling Hate Crime and has identified it as a key priority within its current partnership plan and has done so for several years.

ii)            Enfield also has a separate strategy that looks to tackle all forms of Hate Crime and to support victims of Hate Crime.

iii)           The report came about as a large increase in Hate Crime was witnessed in Enfield especially during the pandemic.

iv)           Enfield was one of the first boroughs in the country to establish a multi-agency partnership for tackling issues around racial hate. The Racial Incident Action Group (RIAG) was set up in Enfield in 1994, in 2006 this evolved into the Enfield Hate Crime Forum (EHCF) incorporating groups that work to tackle all aspects of Hate Crime.

v)            Enfield’s Multi-Agency model was recommended as a good practice model by the Home Office ‘In This Together: Good Practice in
Multi-Agency Working’ guide as far back as 1999

vi)           The current reporting position reflected in the overall performance reports show that in the twelve months leading up to July 2021, there were 773 Hate Crime offences recorded in Enfield. This is a 20% increase over the same period the previous year where 664 cases were recorded.

vii)          This increase however has reduced considerably over the last few months and is now tracking a similar pattern to that of anti-social behaviour reports, in so much as the numbers increased dramatically during lockdown and are starting to revert to a more usual level as the pandemic restrictions are becoming less onerous.

viii)        Historically, summer months have seen higher numbers of Hate Crime reported compared with the winter, probably due to more people gathering outside their homes during warmer months.

ix)           The highest number of Hate Crime offences in Enfield in the last 2 years were recorded in June 2020, which followed the first ever easing of restrictions in mid May 2020. The following months show a reduction in reporting until December 2020 where another significant rise in Hate Crime numbers were reported, again coinciding with the lifting of restrictions. Thought the increase in reporting in December 2020 was a smaller increase

x)            Racist and Religious Hate Crime continues to be the highest proportion of all the Hate Crime strands. This accounts for around 88% of all reported Hate Crime in Enfield. The largest reporting reason was verbal assault or verbal altercation followed by neighbour dispute.

xi)           Ethnicity details for victims and perpetrators are not always available. Where figures are available the largest recorded cohort of the victims were from the Black African/Caribbean background. Followed by Dark European category. The ethnicity details produced are according to the way they are defined on the police ethnicity code system and people can choose not to declare their ethnicity

xii)          The locations and time of incidents were studied, and it was found that a number of higher population density wards such as Upper Edmonton, Edmonton Green, Southbury and Ponders End had the highest proportion of the reported incidents. The fewest incidents were reported in Grange, Bush Hill Park and Turkey Street.

xiii)        The SSCB understands that Hate Crime remains under reported and efforts need to continue to tackle Hate Crime in the borough.

xiv)        The borough has a bi-monthly Case Management Panel (CMP) that uses multi-agency approach to tackling Hate Crime and supporting victims of Hate Crime. The CMP also enables the multi-agency partnership to scrutinise the way the crimes are handled, and the panel is chaired by a local community representative

xv)         Enfield has regularly supported the National Hate Crime awareness week, which this year is falling on the 9^th-16^th October and a number of dedicated online publicity materials have been created to share online

xvi)        In relation to Hate Crime and to promote cohesion, Enfield’s Prevent Education Officer has offered workshops and assemblies on Hate Crime to both Primary and Secondary schools within the borough. A number of resources have been created including classroom workshops and school assembly materials to take this message to local schools. These workshops have been particularly well received in local schools

The following comments and questions were raised: 

1     Why are there no religious groups represented on the membership of the Enfield Hate Crime Forum (EHCF) and is anything being done to address this? Suj advised that regular and close work takes places with many religious organisations. Enfield has a Faith Forum as well as a Faith Officer. Faith Group representatives are invited to all public events, however due to the way in which the Faith Forum operates they do not have a nominated person to attend the various meetings/events and unfortunately it would not be feasible to invite all Faith Forum representatives to every individual event/meeting.

2     Would it not be an idea to invite appropriate representatives to meetings/events from the faith communities that are being targeted by hate crimes? Suj advised that regular monitoring takes place to look at any religious groups that have been targeted by hate crimes and then work is undertaken with these particular groups.

3     Hate Crime data is not broken down in the reports, e.g. what is the crime, is it against certain religious groups etc.? It would be most beneficial to have a much more detailed and itemised breakdown. Andrea explained that the level of detail that can be accessed for the reports is often limited due to the way in which this data is recorded by the Police. Simon Crick, BCU Commander acknowledged that this was a concern and advised that this would be reviewed across the BCU (Basic Command Unit) so that a much deeper level of detail would be made available that could then be used when compiling reports. He went on to say that Hate Crime is one of his top priorities and he advised that Enfield is one of the better authorities across London for dealing with and addressing this type of offence. In London the sanctioned detection rate (a positive criminal justice outcome) rose from 13% in 2019/20 to 14% in 2020/21. The highest proportion of hate crime is consistently racist and religious offences and the majority of sanctioned detections are for these types of offences.

4     Simon also advised that a training programme is provided to every Hate Crime response officer and good practice is regularly shared. A bespoke team has been created to investigate and deal specifically with Hate Crime and the benefits of this are now becoming apparent with higher levels in the reporting of Hate Crime and an increase in detection rates. This is a real confident boost for what officers are doing.

5     A strong pro-active approach is taken with regards to cohesion and ‘bringing people together’. Enfield’s Community Engagement Officer works closely with different communities/organisations and this theme is also embedded in the education work that takes place in local schools.  The Police have also supplemented this work by holding a number of Come Together events which have been well received and attended.

6     Superintendent Chris Jones commented that the work taking place in schools is absolutely critical in terms of learning about and understanding different religions and cultures, and this is a really strong investments for the future of our schools and young people.

7     Andrea advised that there is also some fantastic work taking place around the Learning Disabilities Team with regards to keeping safe etc. This work is invaluable as this group can often be targeted in relation to Hate Crime.

The Chair thanked everyone for another good update which had been most informative and helpful.