Agenda item

An update from the police is provided at every meeting.

Chief Inspector Craig Knight and Superintendent Andy Brittan attended to represent the Metropolitan Police .

Councillor Kathy Bance asked questions based on the Independent Office for Police Conduct’s report which had identified eleven opportunities for the Met to improve on stop and search. She asked if the police could confirm that the recommendations of the report would be adopted. Chief Inspector Knight confirmed that all of the recommendations of the report had been accepted by the BCU and the Metropolitan Police and also that MOPAC (Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime) was studying the report with interest. It was noted that on the day of the meeting, a piece of work was being developed by the Commissioner’s Office, with a view to taking some of the recommendations forward. Commander Connors at New Scotland Yard was the Lead for this. She was working with all of the BCU Leads to implement the recommendations.

Covid compliant training had already commenced with respect to ‘unconscious bias’. This package of training had been accepted nationally as best practice. Mr Knight responded to the eleven points that had been raised in the questions from Councillor Bance, and outlined how all of the recommendations were being progressed. The full list of questions and responses are attached as an appendix to the minutes.

Councillor Bance responded by saying that she was glad that the police had accepted that some lessons had been learned, and she had great faith in Bromley police to implement the recommendations going forward. In the course of providing responses to the questions, Mr Knight stated that he would be happy to provide a presentation regarding the ‘use of force’ if required.

The Chairman stated that he had attended a meeting of the SNB (Safer Neighbourhood Board) the previous week, and it had become apparent that there was now a formal role for the SNB in terms of the independent monitoring of stop and search. He wondered how this could be implemented and monitored going forward, as he was not aware of independent monitoring taking place currently. It was highlighted by Mr Knight that this was an area that was currently being looked at by MOPAC. Mr Knight commented that it was important that the police be transparent in the use of stop and search and he requested that any ideas as to how this could be developed in the community be forwarded to him; he would then forward the suggestions to MOPAC for consideration.

An explanation was provided as to what was meant by a ‘sanctioned detection’.

A further discussion took place regarding the classification of crime types, and specifically with respect to drugs and crimes associated with drug use. Mr Knight stated that just looking at crime data on an excel spreadsheet was in his view not the best way to analyse and learn from crime data. The police had now changed focus, and instead of just monitoring raw data, they were focusing more on the actual level of harm that was caused by different crime types. The Committee was briefed concerning a piece of academic work called the Cambridge Harm Index, this had been introduced across the UK and was recommended by the College of Policing as national best practice. This had now been adopted across London. 

A discussion took place about how the police were utilising social media and  an explanation was provided to outline what constituted the crime of ‘harassment’. 

The Chairman felt that it may be useful for the next meeting if the police could provide an overview of what Bromley was like in terms of race, sexual harassment, and hate crime. Superintendent Brittan responded that he could meet with the Chairman in person with an expert from the police to discuss  this further and the Chairman agreed to this.

The BYC Chairman asked what percentage of individuals being stopped and searched were young people. He also asked how young people could be involved in a stop and search monitoring group. Mr Knight responded that the number of young people stopped and searched would vary depending on the type of crime that the police were seeking to prevent, and it was a difficult number to pin down. The wider issue that Mr Knight was concerned with was how could agencies safeguard those young people that were stopped and searched. Across Bromley 184 searches had been undertaken in the last month, and 170 in the last week; 60% of these were drug related. He said that the police were very keen that young people should have a large voice in terms of stop and search and he welcomed input from BYC and the Committee.

A Member asked when a body worn camera was not required to be switched on. Mr Knight answered that it was on stand by when it was not recording, it was only switched on when required. 

A Member asked why the rolling year figures for ASB had increased. Superintendent Brittan explained that this was because much of this was related to low level crime reporting of issues related to Covid and the Lockdown. It consisted of things like neighbours complaining about neighbours for allegedly breaking Covid guidelines and other such low level Covid related issues.

The Chairman expressed his thanks to the police for attending the meeting and for the sterling work that they had undertaken during the course of the pandemic.

The police expressed their thanks for the help and support that they had received from Joanne Stowell (Assistant Director for Public Protection and Enforcement).

RESOLVED that the police update be noted and that the BYC Chairman would liaise direct with Chief Inspector Knight regarding BYC input into the Police Stop and Search Strategy.