Minutes:
Superintendent Luke Baldock (Joint Chairman) attended to provide the Police update.
The Superintendent stated that he wanted to ‘dig in’ and understand individual problems in each ward and work was commencing to this effect. His aim was that a crime profile could be established for each Ward. A ‘data dive’ would then be undertaken to try and understand the key issues in each Ward and to see if the data dive met with the reality and current perceptions on the ground. So in essence, the Police were moving to a problem based system to identify problems and then undertaking the appropriate actions. The Superintendent said that he would take co-responsibility for a problem in each ward.
Partners were informed that a new speed gun was being acquired in an attempt to address the speeding problem that had been identified within the Borough. An ASB conference was due to take place in February/March 2024. The purpose of this was to better understand issues across the Borough with respect to ASB.
The Police Tactical Task and Action Group had identified that there was a disproportionately high victimisation of Bromley school children with respect to robbery, when compared with Sutton and Croydon. The Police would be working with the Education Department to implement awareness campaigns to help children understand how to keep themselves and their property safe.
It seemed that there was an emerging issue of burglary within the Borough, particularly in certain wards like Penge and the Crays and Superintendent Baldock was asking his officers to look into this further.
Some events were mentioned, like the recent attendance of the Met Commissioner, who introduced the new ‘Met for London Plan’. It was noted that the Crime Summit would be held in October. Superintendent Baldock was booking in public meetings, so that the police could speak to local communities. He had already attended a meeting in Biggin Hill; a meeting was booked in Chislehurst and he would be speaking in Plaistow soon.
There was no indication at this time that any of the recent violent incidents were linked. Superintendent Baldock said that it was the practise of local officers that they would be more visibly present in communities after these incidents, to provide assurance and that the local knowledge of Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNTs) was often invaluable. It was noted that the local knowledge of a SNT had recently led to a suspect being identified via CCTV.
The Assistant Director for Housing mentioned that the Council had a large temporary accommodation unit in the Plaistow area, and she asked if any of the incidences discussed at the meeting had been linked to the unit. Superintendent Baldock responded that at this time there was no indication that there was any link with the temporary accommodation unit. A discussion took place as to how the police would patrol parks and local spaces and it was noted that the misuse of nitrous oxide was a national problem and that the Government was considering new legislation to manage this. It was asked if all burglaries where now attended, and the response was affirmative.
The matter of how the Police were dealing with shoplifting was discussed. Work was already underway in this regard. Superintendent Baldock’s intention was to form a working group comprising of the Partnership, the Police, business groups and any other relevant parties, to analyse the issues in detail. It was noted that one particular police officer had been instrumental in the conviction of five or six prolific shop lifting offenders who had received custodial sentences. It was further noted that all of the prolific shoplifters arrested were also drug users.
The Head of Service for Early Intervention and Family Support asked if PCSOs could visit Children and Family Centres, as she felt this was beneficial for communities. This was something that had been undertaken previously. Superintendent Baldock said he would take this up as an action outside the meeting.
In response to a request, the Superintendent stated that he would ensure that the Programme Lead – Substance Misuse (Public Health) got invited to the next meeting of the Drugs Partnership.
RESOLVED that:
1) Superintendent Baldock would look into the possibility of PCSOs visiting Children and Family Centres.
2) Going forward, the LBB Programme Lead – Substance Misuse (Public Health) would be invited to meetings of the Drugs Partnership.