Agenda item

Standing Items are:

NDVWI

Weapons

Hate crime

Domestic violence

Burglary

Theft of motor vehicles

ASB

Context:

Challenging performance is a key role which has been identified for the SBPB. This item updates partners in relation to the performance issues, highlights any new challenges, and gains consensus as to how the group can work together to address these.

Superintendent Andy Brittain briefed the Board as follows:

There had been a 14% reduction in reports to the police of domestic abuse. There was now a fully staffed Community Safety Unit and the police were seeking to extend the use of DV protection notices to provide greater support to victims. The police intended to focus on the night time economy and on protecting women in public houses and other licensed premises in the borough; this linked in with the police’s VAWG Strategy. It was reported that the police would have a dedicated Town Centre Team of 21 officers working in Bromley in February 2022. 

Sex offences were up by 1% but this only equated to 6 offences in total. .

Knife Crime and Gun Crime figures had decreased.

There were some concerns about the volume of reported race/hate crime. There was now a greater emphasis on the quality of service provided to victims of race/ hate crime by the police. This was a work in progress and  was an issue that was pan London. Superintendent Andy Brittain stated that race and hate crime had seen a 17% increase which was frustrating and a cause for concern. Some of this seemed to be linked to the Covid 19 pandemic.

The Board was pleased to note that the number of burglary offences had decreased. Much of this was probably due to the fact that more people were now working from home.

There had been an increase in the number of thefts of motor vehicles. As well as high end vehicles, there had also been an increase in the number of thefts of mopeds and scooters which seemed to tie in with the growth of food delivery services.

Superintendent Andy Brittain said that ASB calls had remained static.

The responses to the public attitude survey were disappointing. The Superintendent acknowledged that the police needed to improve the way that they communicated with the public and to improve their use of social media platforms. He felt that more public engagement was also important. He was concerned about the low number of people that knew how to contact their ward officers and this was something that definitely required improvement. It was planned that the email addresses for the ward teams would be refreshed and disseminated to the public.

The Joint Chairman (Joanne Stowell) briefed the Board with some information that had been provided by the Home Office that went some way to explain the rise in the numbers of reports concerning race/hate crime:

·  Because people had been at home for longer, they had spent more time online and had been exposed to disinformation and various conspiracy theories

·  There were now better reporting mechanisms for the reporting of race and hate crime

·  There had been some trigger events such as a BLM backlash

·  More people were coming forward to report crime

The Chairman of the SNB commented that she was working with Inspector Stuart Baker to improve the lines of communication between residents and local ward officers.

It was noted that a more detailed breakdown of race/hate crime (as it pertained to individual wards) could be obtained online from the MOPAC data store.

The Head of Service for Early Intervention and Family Support urged caution as far as the domestic abuse figures were concerned. From the volume of clients accessing the IDVA service, it seemed that domestic abuse numbers were not decreasing. Similarly, Dawn Helps from Clarion reported that Clarion had received a huge increase in requests for re-housing on the grounds of domestic abuse. The LBB Director of Children’s Services confirmed this by commenting that a significant driver for the referral of children to Children’s Services was domestic abuse. The Superintendent asked if Clarion could share with the police their data with respect to domestic abuse referrals and the response was affirmative.

In terms of perception, Councillor Angela Page (Portfolio Holder for Public Protection and Enforcement) said that the two matters that were commented on by residents the most was the lack of visible policing and the continued problems with E Scooters where the perception was that little was being done to deal with this problem. 

It was noted that a more detailed breakdown of race/hate crime (as it pertained to individual wards) could be obtained online from the MOPAC data store

The Chairman of the SNB commented that she was working with Inspector Stuart Baker to improve the lines of communication between residents and local ward officers..

The Joint Chairman (Joanne Stowell) raised a point of note with respect to the definition of ASB. This was important as ASB had been classed by MOPAC as a key priority. It had come to her attention that currently, a cat relieving itself in a neighbour’s garden would come under the current broad definition of ASB. This was a matter that she had asked MOPAC to look at and had requested that the ASB data be dis-aggregated.

With respect to the data around ‘public perception’ Ms Stowell had asked MOPAC how they came by this data; the response from MOPAC seemed to indicate that what Partners were looking at was the ‘science of small numbers’. This meant that some of the data that was currently being presented to the Board did not give a true reflection of the situation in Bromley. Ms Stowell had therefore requested that the LBB ASB Co-ordinator work with the police to produce a questionnaire that could be used locally the next time there was a Community Impact Day. Also the contact numbers for the local ward officers would be provided on the questionnaire.

Councillor David Cartwright stated that local residents across the borough were reporting speeding as an issue and he hoped if possible that this could be captured on the ASB data. 

RESOLVED that

1)  Clarion Housing would share data with the police concerning domestic abuse referrals.

2) The LBB ASB Co-ordinator would work with the police to produce a questionnaire that could be used at the next Community Impact Day, and which would contain the contact numbers for local ward officers.