Agenda item

To receive the report of Andrea Clemons, Head of Community Safety and Rebecca Barnett, Community Safety Intelligence Officer.

Andrea Clemons, Head of Community Safety introduced the report, which set out the performance against agreed priorities of the Safer and Stronger Communities Board Plan. It was advised that due to changes in accessing data some crime categories had not been included. The key points in the report were highlighted and it was noted that Total Notifiable Offences in Enfield had decreased by 2.2% in the year ending July 2023 when compared to the previous 12 months. London saw a 5.0% increase over the same period. Further data, comparisons and trends were provided for each category.

Questions were invited from Members.

In response to concerns regarding knife crime it was advised that there is a big, combined partnership push around this through the North Area Group (Enfield & Haringey Police) which looks at the trends, hotspot locations, times etc to see where intervention is best placed. This data had been used to apply for some additional funding to tackle robberies as the data showed that the peak time for this type of offense was between the end of the school day and 5pm/6pm. Some additional youth work was commissioned for Enfield Town where a problem had been identified and a responsible team had been placed in this area at the times that it was needed and as a result, robberies had come down. Some of this work is resource intensive as it also about tackling offenders including surveillance work by the Police to tackle the sale of knives in local shops. Members were assured however that there is a broad range of activity in place to try and tackle weapon related violence, some of which is robberies and some of which can lead to very serious injury. Superintendent Byrne provided some further information on the Met’s Summer Nights partnership approach which has seen knife detection rates go up as more people are stopped and searched and some really nasty weapons have been taken off the streets. Work is also ongoing to look at how the proactive units are used with a view to make these more targeted, as serious violence with injury and knife crime is absolutely a police priority.

Further information was provided on the various partnership activity taking place which included knife safes, knife bins, amnesties, youth worker at North Middlesex Hospital A&E, gang mentoring to encourage young people away from certain lifestyles and working with young people through the Youth Justice Team. The Panel requested that the Partnership Activity Action Plan be circulated post meeting.

ACTION: Andrea Clemons

The Enfield Youth Council representative put forward some interesting points regarding knife crime from a young persons’ perspective which were welcomed by panel members and officers in attendance at the meeting. Superintendent Byrne said he would be keen to meet with the Enfield Youth Council outside of the meeting to discuss this issue in more detail.

Action: Superintendent Chris Byrne

In response to questions regarding effective plans in place over the coming years to reduce motor vehicle crime it was advised that there was a renewed energy around tackling vehicle crime and Superintendent Byrne confirmed that there is an operation in place around this crime type which would hopefully result in a reduction soon. It was also suggested that Inspector Richard Lee could provide some information at a future meeting of the Crime Scrutiny Panel on key tactics that will be deployed over the next 12 months.

It was agreed that a break down on Ward-to Ward data for motor vehicle crime would be circulated to the panel post meeting.

Action: Andrea Clemons

In response to questions regarding police presence and visibility on Wards, it was advised that there had been a recent police uplift around this issue to enable an increase in visibility.

Further discussion took place regarding sanction detection rates and an explanation was provided on how this data was accessed. The panel members agreed that there was a need for some further ‘upskilling’ to better understand this data.

Action: Andrea Clemons/Superintendent Chris Byrne

The Chair thanked the officers and the police for the report and their attendance at the meeting.

The Panel agreed:

i.              To note the report.

ii.            That the above actions be implemented