The police update was provided by Chief Inspector Craig Knight.

The Chairman advised that he had met with the police recently to discuss the format of police updates to the Committee. It had been decided that going forward, the police updates (provided to the Committee in advance of the meeting) would focus on the MOPAC (Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime) crime priorities and on local priorities. At the meeting itself there would be a briefing provided each month on a different area of policing. So one month there could be an update concerning neighbourhood policing, and another month it could be safeguarding etc. Local ward issues should be confined as much as possible to ward panel meetings and SNB (Safer Neighbourhood Board) meetings. This would mean that the PDS Committee could devote itself to focusing on strategic issues.

Mr Knight addressed the matter that had been raised previously concerning the number of detectives in the south area BCU. It was clarified that the south area BCU (Basic Command Unit) was currently at full strength with respect to detectives.

Mr Knight mentioned that the police would be addressing licensing issues concerning the BP garage in Mottingham over the next 10 days.

The Committee heard that the total number of burglary offences committed over the rolling 12 months was 2,600, which was an increase of 7.5%. On the positive side, the number of offences relating to non-domestic violence with injury was down by 21%. At the time of the meeting, the highest rate of ASB offences had been reported in Orpington, followed by Penge and Cator. 

Mr Knight said that there had been a small rise in the number of sexual offences reported.

The Committee noted that there had been a 15% increase in the use of stop and search. Mr Knight expressed the view that the increased use of stop and search had resulted in less individuals carrying knives. Mr Knight said that over the last 12 months, the police in Bromley had carried out 5174 stop and searches. Forty five percent of the stop and searches were drug related. 

Mr Knight informed Members that MOPAC was seeking to adopt vehicle related offences as a priority. The police were not keen on this idea as they felt it would detract from dealing with more serious offences. Mr Knight stated that roughly 50% of vehicle associated offences related to car drivers not taking basic precautions like locking doors and windows, and leaving valuables in open sight.

Members were briefed around police response times. Mr Knight stated that ‘I calls’ (the most urgent) were being responded to within 15 minutes in 82% of cases—so there had not been a drop in performance. A pot of money had been released to acquire some new police fleet vehicles. The police had to decide how best to use the new money. Mr Knight anticipated that the money would be primarily used to acquire more ‘Q’ cars. These were unmarked vehicles that would be used for covert operations and to gather intelligence.

The Committee heard that the first meeting of the Bromley Community Monitoring Group had recently taken place. The Group was responsible for checking stop and search reports. Reported ‘victim satisfaction’ was above average at 70%; the MET average was 66%.

A Member was concerned that burglary rates were starting to rise again, and she was sceptical that the rate of knife crime was decreasing. She also referred to a TV report that stated that Bromley had the highest rate of drug abuse in London. Mr Knight responded that this was not related to cannabis usage in its various forms. He was aware of the TV report and said that it was related to the reported usage of drugs like cocaine--which was primarily used by middle aged white collar workers in Bromley. 

A Co-opted Member asked if he could be provided with details concerning the ages of those individuals that had been subject to the stop and search operations. Mr Knight agreed that he would access the data and send it to the Co-opted Member.

A Member enquired what the consequences were for those found in possession of drugs as a result of stop and search operations, and a discussion took place around this. A Co-opted Member felt that it was important that regarding stop and search, young people should be aware of their rights and how they should respond. He asked if the police were making young people aware of these things. Mr Knight answered that in addition to online workshops, the police were delivering stop and search training in schools and stop and search workshops had been held in Bromley and Sutton.

The Committee was briefed concerning the theft of higher specification ‘keyless’ cars and how they were working with manufactures to try and resolve the issue. Potential car thieves would attempt to use a device outside of a person’s property that would be able to pick up the signal from the car keys. It was recommended that the owners of such cars should put their car keys in a biscuit tin to prevent the key’s signal being picked up by potential car thieves.

A Member made the interesting point that stop and search should start at home with parents ensuring that their children did not leave the home with either drugs or knives. It was confirmed that ‘county lining’ was taking place and a special team had been set up to deal with it. It was also noted that the Council and the police were undertaking joint visits to tackle the issue of drug use in pubs.

A Co-opted Member raised the issue of ‘chicken shop’ grooming. This would typically commence with young people being provided with ‘free’ food. Later they would be asked to deliver a package to ‘pay’ for the food. In some cases it would then be arranged for the young person to be ‘robbed’. The young person would then be informed that because they had lost the package, they now owed a debt. They would then find themselves involved in criminal activities in an effort to repay the ‘debt’. Mr Knight responded that the police were aware of this activity, and it was being dealt with by the police gangs unit. He stressed the importance of passing information concerning these activities to the police, and this could be done anonymously. 

RESOLVED that the police update is noted, and that Chief Inspector Knight provide the BYC Co-opted Member with the details of the ages of the individuals that had been subject to stop and search operations.