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 the balance of partnership resources within the BCU to so see how better we can support Police activities and the development of the SNP’s.