Issue - meetings
Crime and disorder spotlight (second) with Borough Commander and Safer Communities
Meeting: 25/01/2021 - Overview & Scrutiny Committee (Item 7)
7 Police Service Basic Command Units (BCU) views and issues for Tower Hamlets PDF 128 KB
A copy of the presentation will be made available prior to the meeting.
Additional documents:
- Complete Police Presentation, item 7 PDF 210 KB
- Webcast for Police Service Basic Command Units (BCU) views and issues for Tower Hamlets
Minutes:
The Committee received a presentation from Marcus Barnett (Detective Chief Superintendent - BCU Commander - Central East – Hackney and Tower Hamlets); Mike Hamer – (Superintendent Crime Investigations, Central East – Hackney and Tower Hamlets); and Andy Port (Superintendent Neighbourhood Policing, Central East – Hackney and Tower Hamlets) on views and issues for Tower Hamlets: The main points of the discussion maybe summarised as follows:
The Committee
v Expressed concern over the issue of a prolonged abstractions of Designated Ward Police Officers and the impact that, that can have in dealing with anti-social behaviour as opposed to criminal activity. Noted that because the Basic Command Unit (BCU) officers are trained to certain skills they will have to go and police other parts of London.
v Following questioning of the officers noted that whenever the BCU faces significant abstraction levels they must look at carefully certain parts of the business that cannot afford to drop below what is describe as an absolute minimum strength requirement. Also, when the BCU must extract resources on the funded posts they always speak to the partner agency to tell them when they are going to have to abstract officers. Noted whilst the BCU wants to maintain an absolute optimum level now as it stands the BCU has all the officers it should have within all the neighbourhood and ward panels.
v Expressed concern at the use of Section 60s the BCU has worked hard in recent months around the partnership messaging regarding its utilisation in conjunction with stop and search. Noted that the use of Section 60 is very much about preventing and detecting violence on the streets based on intelligence that says it is believed that there is violence going to occur and weapons will be used or violence has happened and the BCU wants to prevent further violence from happening. It enables officers and others who will come into the BCU to provide support to search people. However, officers still must justify the grounds for any search in a specific geographical location.
v In addition, were advised that the BCU make sure that partners and the community understand why and when a Section 60 has been authorised through a partnership message to let people know what is being done and why. Noted that on the issue of Section 60 the SNB has taken its use very seriously and in recent months and have closely scrutinised the BCU on this issue and asked questions about whether there is a need to undertake the various searches or whether in fact the searches could be undertaken under other areas of legislation.
v Noted concerns about the outcome of an incident that had happened during a specific Section 60 that had been authorised a sometime prior to the arrival of the current BCU Commander. The OSC Member who had raised this issue was asked to write directly to BCU Commander to provide more information about that incident.
v Following further question noted details about Operation Continuum that ... view the full minutes text for item 7
Meeting: 27/01/2020 - Overview & Scrutiny Committee (Item 6)
Borough Commander Spotlight
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Detective Chief Superintendent Marcus Barnett, BCU Commander for Hackney and Tower Hamlets gave a presentation to the Committee on the challenges and key areas of work undertaken to tackle community safety. The main points of the discussions on the report may be summarised as follows:
The Committee:
- Noted the BCU Commander must balance the available resources across LBTH and to those areas of greatest e.g. Night-time Economy and the linkages to criminality and public order.
- Noted that the one of the issue’s raised by the Scrutiny Challenge Session (Resident Engagement with Safer Neighbourhood Panels) on the 23rd October 2019 was that residents expressed concerned at the apparent lack of police officers on the Borough’s Streets.
- Commented that there are concerns regarding 101 non-emergency number for contacting the police and wanted examples issue’s so that they can be chased or evidence that the Police Service is working to increase capacity. In response it was noted that the there was a new Head of Safeguarding in post who was looking at addressing residents’ concerns e.g. detection rates and happy to come back to a future meeting discuss this issue.
- Noted that residents want the Safer Neighbourhood Teams to have a higher profile for and to be kept informed of changes in staffing on the Ward Teams and to see improved interaction with Safer Neighbourhood Panels. In response the Committee noted that Inspector Chris Scammell was working to address this.
- Noted that the picture was currently unclear with regards to the drugs market in LBTH.
- Commented that it would like policies on resolution/detection rates on Domestic Violence.
- Commented that it wanted to see more transparency by the Police Service about what is happening to help build linkages with SNP and enable residents to effectively challenge their SNT.
- Indicated that on the Isle of Dogs residents felt that SNP had proven to be less effective that the Police Forum that had preceded it. Residents also wished to see an SNP that matches the Isle of Dogs boundaries, in response it was noted that (i) the BCU wanted strong functional SNP’s in LBTH to work with SNT’s and (ii) the BCU Commander indicated that he would be happy to meet on the Isle of Dogs Ward to discuss this issue.
- Noted that the BCU wanted a sharper focus on exploitation and slavery and multi-agency safeguarding hubs.
- Noted that the increasing numbers of officers will help to address short fall in neighbourhoods and provide greater stability and continuity; and
- Expressed concern regarding the levels of ASB and Criminality in Shoreditch and noted in response that the Police and LBTH officers have taken part in several operations funded by the Late-Night Levy to manage of late-night alcohol-related crime and disorder.
The Chair Moved and it was:
RESOLVED to:
- Ask the Scrutiny Lead for Community Safety & Environment to (i) escalate concerns regarding reporting via 101; (ii) share the findings of the Scrutiny Challenge Session (Resident Engagement with Safer Neighbourhood Panels) with the Borough Commander; and (iii) examine ... view the full minutes text for item 6
Meeting: 29/02/2016 - Overview & Scrutiny Committee (Item 6)
6 Crime and disorder spotlight (second) with Borough Commander and Safer Communities PDF 81 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Committee received a briefing paper in relation to the ASB Operational Group that outlined details relating to the Operational Group, the Neighbourhood Priorities, current issues, the membership and the ASB product. Andy Bamber, (Service Head, Community Safety) informed the Committee that: -
· Community Safety and Police do not always agree and are always challenging each other, but share a good working relationship and want to see the issues in the Borough dealt with and resolved;
· Hoping to resolve the contractual issues and move forward with the Partnership Task Force as soon as possible;
· The previous administration made arrangements for 20 police officers to be contracted with 1 in each ward;
· Due to the change in administration discussions were held with the Mayor elect to seek clarity and direction relating to the previous arrangement and it was felt that only six police officers were needed; and
· Given these events, the police now wanted to take extra care to ensure that the terms of the Task Force were absolutely clear and finalised on both sides before moving forward.
Superintendent Peter Turner informed the Committee that: -
· The former Borough Commander left last Friday and the new Borough Commander Detective Superintendent Langworthy was now in post;
· ASB has reduced by 12.8% in comparison to last year
· Calls to the service are high, mainly because there is only 1 number to call #101;
· Repeat calls have been reduced by 15%;
· Over 1,000 ASB call have been received which averages over 30 a day and it is difficult to respond to all calls, so calls and workloads must be prioritised and investigated accordingly;
· The partnership approach has worked previously and will continue to work to improve the Borough;
· Meetings are held every 2 weeks and there is a small number of deployable resources;
· There are improvements that need to be made to provide feedback to the community; and
· There have been some issues with the contract and it has been going forwards and backwards from each legal department.
Trevor Kennett, (Head of Street Enforcement) informed the Committee that there were ASB hotspots in the Borough and that there was an agreement for additional support to deal with the issues and that the teams were making sure that all complaints were assessed and looked into within each cluster.
The Committee:
1. Congratulated the partnership working between the police and the community safety team and also thanked local police officers PC Perry and PC Cruickshank for the good work being done with the Licensing Committee;
2. Raised a number of outstanding ward issues with Superintendent Turner, Andy Bamber and Trevor Kennett;
3. Referred to electoral malpractice being reported by councillors to the police in the past and nothing being done;
4. Expressed concern in relation to feedback following ward-walkabouts not being fed back to councillors and issues in the Borough not being communicated to the local residents and councillors regularly; and
5. Informed Superintendent Turner, Andy Bamber and Trevor Kennett that local residents were frustrated and ... view the full minutes text for item 6