Agenda item

A report is received at every meeting that details any matters that may be outstanding.     

Chief Inspector Craig Knight provided an update concerning the matters arising that were related to the police.

The police and fire service were monitoring any possible delays in responses as a result of low traffic zones. The police reported that to date they were not aware of any significant delays. The LAS had written to the Chairman to inform him that last year, the low traffic zones had caused delays on 188 occasions.

In the rolling 12 months there had been 3403 recorded harassment cases. Chief Inspector Knight provided the Committee with the official definition of what constituted harassment. It was quite a broad area, covering a variety of offences. It was noted that with respect to the offence of harassment, Bromley had been ranked as the 9^th safest borough in London. The areas for the most recorded number of harassment cases were Bromley Town, Penge/Cator and the Crays.

The Committee discussed the differences between Hate Crime and Harassment. Councillor Bance had previously requested a breakdown of the harassment data and she stated that she was happy with the information that had been provided from the police. The Chairman said that he would ensure that the harassment data provided by the police would be disseminated.

The Chairman had asked that the police provide data to show the recruitment and subsequent retention of officers from ethnic minority backgrounds. Chief Inspector Knight provided extensive data in this regard concerning recruitment. This also included a breakdown relating to male and female recruits.

The Chairman thanked the Chief Inspector for the data, but he pointed out that recruitment was different to retention and he was very much interested in how many of these recruits from ethnic minorities were retained in service after completing the relevant training.

The Chief Inspector replied that losses were very small, somewhere in the region of 10 to 20 officers in the first two years. Overall, the retention of officers  had improved in the last 12 months--this was something that the Met Police and MOPAC monitored closely.

A Member asked about security checks when new recruits applied to join the police. (This was in the light of the tragic circumstances surrounding the murder of Sarah Everard). The Chief Inspector replied that the police vetting checks were stringent, but no amount of vetting could always identify a propensity to commit murder. With respect to the Sarah Everard case, the officer concerned had been transferred in from another police force that required a higher form of vetting and he was vetted again when he joined the Met. It was noted that DNA samples and finger print samples were taken from new recruits.

A further discussion took place looking at the difference in retention rates from those who had entered the police force via ‘direct entry’ and those who had entered by more usual routes.

An update was provided concerning the bones that had been dug up in the Biggin Hill area. The Chief Inspector assured the Committee that this incident was not regarded as suspicious. The original analysis of the bone was inconclusive, so a second bone was now being analysed. The current line of thinking was that this was a bone belonging to an elderly male, possibly of Asian or North African origin.

It was noted that with respect to crime hotspots, this was a matter that had already been discussed outside of the meeting.

The matter relating to footpath 136 was also raised. The Chairman asked the relevant Member if she could take this away as a local issue. The Director for Environmental Services and Public Protection said that he would pick up this matter with the relevant team the next day and that he would update the Member who had made the original query. 

RESOLVED that:

1) The Director for Environment and Community Services would look into the issues that had been raised concerning footpath 136. He would raise this the following day with the relevant team and report back to the Member who had raised the matter.