Agenda item
Crime and disorder spotlight (second) with Borough Commander and Safer Communities
- Meeting of Overview & Scrutiny Committee, Monday, 29th February, 2016 7.15 p.m. (Item 6.1)
- View the background to item 6.1
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 losing further confidence in the system and the police, mainly due to lack of communication after complaints have been made and ASB and drug dealing being reported.
Superintendent Peter Turner informed the Committee that in relation to –
· The specific ward issues that were raised, he would feed back to individual councillors any police matters and look at ways to improve communications in the future.
· Secondary Schools had a designated Police Officer in the school and dealt with issues in the schools.
· A number of issues are raised daily with the police relating to ASB, drug dealing, youths hanging around on street corners and causing annoyance and that the police are dealing with it through intelligence and investigations and issuing warrants and making arrests.
Andy Bamber also stated that the ward panels still exist and there is a link officer to deal with administration to ensure the ward panels are run effectively and looking at ways to improve communication with the councillors and the SNT and local residents.
Co-opted Members commented on the good partnership work that was currently taking place on the Collingwood Estate among the police, local residents, Tenants Associations and RSLs and that it should be duplicated elsewhere in the Borough. They also commented on the police in schools and that technology existed in every organisation which should make it easier to communicate feedback, updates and information.
The Committee agreed that: -
1. The Head of Street Enforcement would circulate the note from the ASB Operations Group to the Committee;
2. A briefing paper be submitted to a future meeting identifying ways to improve communication among the police, local residents, community safety and the councillors;
3. The MPS Officers responsible for investigating the electoral malpractice be invited to a future meeting;
4. The results of issues raised at ward walkabouts be circulated as requested by Councillor Hassell; and
5. Statistical data be provided to a future meeting that includes police engagement with primary schools.
The Chair, Councillor John Pierce thanked everyone for their contributions and for the officers attending.
Supporting documents:
- OSSS Brief Feb 16 (4) FINAL, item 6.1 PDF 81 KB
- AP 1 AGENDA ASB Operations Group 180116, item 6.1 PDF 88 KB
- Schedule 3 AP 3 PTF3, item 6.1 PDF 78 KB