Minutes:
Attending to provide the police update were Inspector Stuart Baker and Chief Inspector Ken Loyal.
The Chairman asked Inspector Baker if at future meetings, he could submit the statistics that the police normally would submit to the SBP as part of their priorities. He requested that this data be provided to the scrutiny committee a week before the meeting.
Inspector Baker said that the biggest change he wanted to report was with respect to changes regarding the Bromley Town Centre Team. The police felt that the area in Bromley where the most offences were taking place was in Bromley Town Centre, so the Bromley Town Centre Police Team had been significantly enhanced to deal with this.
Chief Inspector Ken Loyal stated that the police wanted to have better engagement and better communications. They also wanted to reduce violence and VAWG (Violence against Women and Girls). There were four main areas that Chief Inspector Loyal asked his officers to focus on and they were visibility, engagement. enforcement and problem solving. He referenced the 37 arrests which had been made in the town centre and which equated to 20 ‘detections’. He stated that this was a reasonable rate in comparison to MET wide statistics. He explained the various enforcement options that were available to the police in addition to arrests and these were the use of things such as disposal orders, banning orders, and community resolutions.
The Chairman pointed out that the detection rate was understandably good in Bromley Town Centre because of the resource that had been focused in that area, but conversely the detection rate in other areas across the borough were nowhere near the detection rates and arrest rates of Bromley Town Centre. He expressed no surprise that the results were good in Bromley Town Centre because they had approximately six times the number of officers available. In his view the detection rate across the rest of the Borough was not particularly good. He stated it showed what could be achieved if the relevant resources were available. Inspector Baker responded and said that the town centre had been picked because of the volume of crime levels in that area. It was noted that the use of CCTV had made a significant beneficial impact in terms of crime resolution.
A Member referenced the Crown Prosecution Service and asked if they were working ‘in house’ with the police. She suspected that this was not the case and that there were communications issues with the Crown Prosecution Service which resulted in cases being lost. It was noted that the CPS was no longer working in house with the police for various reasons. Inspector Baker commented that the CPS was also under pressure. The Member replied and said it would be beneficial if the CPS could be moved back in house with the police.
A discussion took place concerning the percentage of crime solved with respect to the nighttime economy and what efforts the police were undertaking to increase visibility. A Member expressed concern at the number of police officers that were delayed at hospitals with mental health patients.
The issue of police abstractions across the BCU was discussed. This could occur because of a high risk incident or with respect to a specific operation that was intelligence led. A Member felt that this needed to be reviewed.
The Chairman thanked the police for their attendance and he said that going forward it would be good to look at crime reduction across the Borough as a whole and not just in Bromley Town Centre.
RESOLVED that the police update be noted.