Agenda item

To receive the report of Supt. Rhona Hunt, Supt Partnerships North Area.

RECEIVED the report of Supt. Rhona Hunt, highlighting the following:

(i)            The report provides an update on MPS work locally to prevent serious crime (violence, domestic abuse and rape) and increase sanction detections.

(ii)          Close partnership working takes place on prevention and detection of crime to keep Enfield residents safe. However, the report request was specific to police activity but it should be noted that there is also significant partnership activity undertaken, which has not been detailed in the report.

(iii)         Detailed information was provided on the various work taking place around prevention activity as well as improving detections for violent crime, domestic abuse and rape.

(iv)         North Area BCU Critical Incident (CI) Team was launched in June 2022 to improve detections. Since the inception there have been some fantastic results achieved. This includes several charges of serious assaults, investigating high profile cases across the BCU.

(v)          Enfield MARAC (Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference) is a bi-monthly multi-agency meeting chaired by a Detective Inspector from the Domestic Abuse Unit and discusses cases of domestic abuse. The BCU works closely with third sector agencies such as IDVAs (Independent Domestic Violence Advocates) in order to support the victims of this crime type.

(vi)         The BCU has an effective process around panic alarms and makes regular use of these for high-risk victims of domestic abuse.

(vii)        The MPS aspiration is to detect 30% of all Domestic Abuse (DA) offences. This is recognised as being a particular challenge. In the last performance year 12.7% of all domestic abuse offences resulted in a charge or a police caution.

(viii)       The BCU has a dedicated team of investigators (the Community Safety) that investigates all offences of Domestic Abuse in Enfield and Haringey. This is led by 2 Detective Inspectors and 8 Detective Sergeants and an establishment of 55 investigators. The team has regular training days from subject matter experts and CPS lawyers in order to enhance their level of skill and investigative capacity.

(ix)         North Area has one of the lowest incidence rates for rape in London (9 out of 12 BCUs). That said there have been 689 reports of rape in North Area in the last 12 months. Of these, 349 took place in Enfield, an increase of 19.4% in Enfield compared to the previous rolling year.

(x)          The BCU has a local VAWG (Violence Against Women and Girls) plan which feeds into the MPS VAWG Action Plan. The themes of this plan are detailed in the report.

(xi)         Local prevention activity forms part of the ‘Summer Nights’ plan and again, details of the activity taking place are detailed in the report.

(xii)        North Area BCU has a prevention strategy which links in with the joint CPS-Police Rape Action Plan. A significant focus of this plan is to increase the number of offences brought to justice. The team has one of the lowest numbers of outstanding offenders for rape in the MPS, with most believed to be out of the UK and efforts in hand to trace and extradite them.

(xiii)       In conclusion the report demonstrates that there is significant work ongoing in relation to prevention and detection of serious crime. However, it is clear that there is a need to sustain and improve on existing work given the increases in specific crime types.

The following questions/comments were made:

1.    Information was provided on Operation Nightingale, the Home Office funded project to tackle violent crime in the highest harm hotspots and Supt Rhona Hunt explained how the priority areas for this project were chosen from police, ambulance and NHS data. North Area BCU has six ‘treatment’ areas, which will receive an investment in extra high visibility patrols and benefit from a ‘problem orientated policing’ long-term problem-solving approach. Six other unknown areas have been selected as ‘control’ areas, against which the treatment areas will be compared as part of this Randomised Control Trial to evaluate impact. One of the six treatment areas is in Enfield Borough – Edmonton Green. The remaining five are in Haringey Borough. The areas were selected by the Metropolitan Police Service Strategic Insights Unit, in collaboration with the Home Office, based on the data outlined above. Supt Rhona Hunt outlined that a request was made to spread the treatment areas more equally across both boroughs, but this was declined given the scientific nature of the project and the methodology used to select criteria for treatment areas. Edmonton Green will benefit from a significant investment in police resources and problem solving.

2.    With regards to the term ‘Golden Hour’ Members were advised that this is a term for the period immediately following the commission of an incident or an offence when material is abundant and readily available in high volumes to the police. This involves really focused work by the Critical Incident Team (CIT) to push the investigation ‘over the line’ and officers working within this team are all specialists in their subject matter. 

3.    The Chair thanked Supt. Rhona Hunt for her informative and interesting update but did request that acronyms be avoided in future reports where possible.