Agenda item

POLICE UPDATE

Minutes:

Superintendent Colin Carswell and Chief Inspector Craig Knight attended to provide the police update.

 

The police had provided a document entitled ‘Bromley ASB and Crime Performance & Analysis’ prior the meeting. This had been disseminated to Members previously. The data provided in the document was correct as at 10th October 2019.

 

The briefing provided analysis in the following areas:

 

·  Stop and Search

·  Personal Robbery

·  Theft from Motor Vehicle

·  Residential Burglary

·  Violence with Injury

·  Criminal Damage

·  Public Order

·  Shoplifting

·  Theft from the Person

·  Crimes v Sanctioned Detections

·  Domestic Abuse Incidents

·  Hate Crime

·  Response Times

·  Victim Satisfaction

 

The Chairman had decided before the meeting that the format for dealing with the police update would change, and that Members should proceed straight to questions on the briefing with a cut off time of 30 minutes. Any questions that had not been asked after the cut off period would be emailed to the police for written response.

 

A Member asked why LBB had a greater number of stop and searches undertaken when compared to those boroughs that ranked below LBB in the data that detailed the proportion of stop and searches by Borough. Superintendent Carswell answered that as far as the Bromley of Borough was concerned, nothing had changed with respect to the methodology and thinking around stop and search operations. It was still a matter of undertaking stop and search when it was proportionate and necessary. The Police Commissioner had expressed the view that stop and search was a very valuable and necessary tactic.

 

Superintendent Carswell stated that he was not able to answer for other boroughs, but he expected officers in the south area BCU to undertake stop and search confidently, politely and professionally. In some situations, stop and search could be carried out for drugs or weapons, in other situations it could be in response to suspected burglary offences.

 

A Member noted that stop and search with respect to searches for drugs was the most prominent reason for stop and search being implemented. She further noted that the second highest number of arrests was in respect of theft, fraud and other counterfeit activities. She asked why this was not reflected in the stop and search data. Superintendent Carswell explained that this was because not all suspected offences were legal grounds to allow stop and search to be actualized.

 

It was pointed out that a person could be stopped and searched for suspected possession of drugs, but then during the course of the search there may be reason to believe that some other offence had been committed. If, for example a person was found to be in possession of stolen goods, then it was likely that the individual concerned would be arrested for suspected burglary. 

 

A Member endeavoured to suggest recommendations to the police regarding the format of the police data report, and its content. The Chairman said that any such recommendations should be directed to the Assistant Director for Public Protection and Enforcement outside of the meeting. She would then liaise with the police to see if any of the proposed recommendations could be accommodated.

 

A Member thanked the police for the stop and search activities that had been undertaken in the Penge area. She hoped that the police would continue to carry out these activities, and the police assured that they had every intention of doing so.

 

A Member asked why stop and search had decreased over the last two periods. The police responded that this was because resources had to be diverted to deal with the Extinction Rebellion demonstrations. 

 

The Vice Chairman expressed concern regarding the response to ‘Immediate Response’ calls. These were the most urgent calls with a target response time of 15 minutes. The target for this was to attend these calls within the designated response time in 90% of cases; with the south area BCU, the response time was achieved in 84% of cases. The police said that this response time had seen a drop that was pan-London. Central Command was aware of this and was assessing and dealing with the situation. The South London BCU had a Superintendent who had been tasked with improving the response times.

 

A Member raised the matter of ‘sanctions detections’ which stood at just 7%. This was a matter that was of generic concern amongst Members. The Deputy Police Commissioner had been designated to deal with this, and to drive the number upwards. It was acknowledged that the figure was related in part to the drop in CID numbers. Another factor affecting the number of sanctioned detections was the high number of cases being allocated to each detective. The police were seeking to recruit more detectives but this was challenging.

 

The Chairman asked if there was a KPI for ‘sanctioned detections’ and the police replied that there was not. Neither was there a KPI for positive outcomes per officer as the MET wanted to discourage perverse behaviour.

 

The Chairman asked if there was a strategy being developed to deal with ASB. Superintendent Carswell was pleased to inform Members that after discussions with the Assistant Director for Public Protection, a Joint Action Group (JAG) had now been formed to form a strategy to deal with ASB. The JAG would be a working group sitting under the Safer Bromley Partnership, and would therefore report to the SBP.

 

Mention was made of the police’s determination to improve detection rates for burglary. The police had taken delivery of 10,000 new ‘Met-Trace’ kits for distribution to local residents. It was hoped to achieve a saturation rate of 50% to 80%. The police would still be undertaking covert and overt anti-burglary operations, and in the latest edition of the Safer Bromley News, the top 10 things that the public could do to prevent being victims of burglary were outlined.

 

The Chairman asked if a joint night time operation could be undertaken to stop and search vehicles suspected of fly-tipping. The police agreed in principle to this and stressed the importance of involving the Environment Agency in any such operations. The Environment Agency would be a helpful partner to be involved due to the expertise that they could bring with respect to checking materials and licences.

 

The Committee was informed that Inspector Gary Byfield had now recovered and had returned to duty. The Chairman asked that the Committee’s best wishes be conveyed to Inspector Byfield. 

 

The Chairman thanked Mr Knight and Mr Carswell for attending and updating the Committee.

 

RESOLVED that the police update is noted.