Agenda item

Annual Community Safety Partnership Scrutiny

To review the work of the East Surrey Community Safety Partnership 2019/20.

Minutes:

Members reviewed the work of the East Surrey Community Safety Partnership 2019/20. Cllr R. Ashford, Portfolio Holder for Community Partnerships, gave an overview of the Council’s community safety work. The Council’s community safety and anti-social behaviour officers work closely in partnership with Surrey Police, Surrey County Council, schools and other council teams such as housing and the Joint Enforcement Team (JET) to support its four community safety priorities. These are: tackling anti-social behaviour, preventing domestic abuse and serious organised crime and undertaking anti-terrorist Prevent duties.

Cllr Ashford introduced Insp Angie Austin, Borough Commander for Reigate and Banstead, who attended the meeting, gave a presentation and answered questions from Members. The Reigate and Banstead Specialist Neighbourhood Team priorities were: protecting vulnerable people, targeting prolific offenders, high harm crimes and crimes which have a serious impact on the community and engaging with hard to reach communities.

Inspector Austin highlighted the key areas of policing activity in the borough over the past twelve months, including cuckooing, tackling county-lines drug dealing, child sexual exploitation and identifying and dealing with prolific offenders for firearms, money laundering, drug manufacture and supply, assaults and knife crime.

Police officers continued to engage with hard to reach communities and worked with community development workers to run sessions for example with elderly groups.  They had good contacts with the local mosques and the local Asian Social Group. They wanted to engage more with disability groups and asked Members for their support to work with these groups.

Insp Austin concluded that officers were active in the Borough although they were not always visible to the public due to the high number of 999 calls and work involved with supervising prisoners.

The Head of Community Partnerships set out the Borough’s work on community safety which included statutory responsibilities to work with partners, including the police, to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour, lead management of domestic homicide reviews and manage public space protection orders. Non-statutory activities included overseeing CCTV and tackling domestic abuse although the latter work will become a statutory duty after new domestic abuse laws come into force. In the last year, the Council had employed a new community safety officer and a part-time anti-social behaviour co-ordinator, both from police backgrounds. This meant that the Council was tackling anti-social behaviour at a faster pace than before.

The Council’s Community Safety Officer gave an overview of the Council’s work on its community safety priorities which included working closely with partners to deliver more effective joint enforcement activities to respond to and reduce anti-social behaviour. One example of the problem-solving approach to the work was targeting aggressive begging on the streets, often linked to Serious Organised Crime groups. They also worked with individuals who were rough sleepers to help them get the support they need and take them off the streets.

The Community Safety team works closely with East Surrey Domestic Abuse Service (ESDAS) to raise awareness of domestic abuse. This included holding a successful event at the Harlequin theatre in Redhill called ‘The Best We Can Be’ aimed at young people aged from 16 to 24 and local colleges. The team also oversaw domestic homicide reviews working with the Home Office, with two ongoing and one more potentially starting shortly. The Borough was an active member of the East Surrey Domestic Abuse Working Group with Mole Valley and Tandridge Councils.

The team had held four Serious Organised Crime briefings for officers from housing, family support and licensing as well as Members. Partners have reported increased intelligence from the Reigate and Banstead area as a result. Racist stickers posted in Woodhatch had been removed quickly. A Prevent duty health check had identified some improvements which was now almost completed.

Members thanked Insp Austin for the officers who dealt with the drug problems very quickly in the north of the borough.

Members made the following observations in the discussion that followed:

·       Burglaries in north of the Borough – Members from wards in the north of the Borough said they had received emails and calls from residents in the High Beeches area who felt they had been targeted by burglars, including car thieves. Insp Austin addressed Members’ concerns and gave an update. The figures showed that this time last year there were 12.5 per cent fewer burglaries than the previous year. Burglaries were now 10.5 per cent higher than last year and concentrated in one area. In August, around 65 burglaries were reported in Banstead and Chipstead areas. Insp Austin said they had had some good results from ongoing investigations and officers had carried out effective stop and searches. Several arrests had been made when officers found car boots that contained balaclavas, crowbars and stolen items. This was not enough to press charges, however investigations were continuing using CCTV and mobile phone usage.

A man had been arrested recently on suspicion of stealing a car and inquiries were ongoing. Other crimes had been solved from interviewing offenders who were already in prison. One man who had carried out 47 burglaries had been sentenced and was in prison. She said that this was an issue across the south east with criminals targeting specific areas identifying vulnerable properties with strategic roads nearby, burglars could drop their false number-plates and then drive as quickly as possible out of the area. Some were high value car thefts which showed that this was an organised crime. Officers were carrying out preventative work by knocking on doors of vulnerable properties and offering advice to householders. Targeted roads police and armed response officers were carrying out mobile patrols. Since the end of November, officers on patrol had made 103 stops and 33 stop searches. Criminals did move on if known burglars were being targeted.

·       Officer assaults – Members asked why police officers in the Borough were assaulted more often than in other local authority areas with a reported 144 assaults. It was identified that this was due to having a custody centre, prison, hospital and mental health premises in the Council’s area which were all factors that increased the risk of assaults on officers.

·       Numbers of police officers – Members asked how many additional officers were deployed in the Borough following the increase in the Surrey Police precept and the national pledge to increase the number of officers on the streets. Insp Austin said that 11 neighbourhood officers were being recruited across Surrey. In the Borough this meant one additional neighbourhood officer, plus a youth intervention officer and an additional neighbourhood support officer. She reported that there had been problems retaining officers as policing was no longer seen as a long-term career.

·       Working with the Crown Prosecution Service to obtain prosecutions   Members asked how much support the police obtained from the CPS after arrests were made as it seemed that even though criminals were well-known to police it was not easy to obtain prosecutions. It was clarified that support was given but cases needed substantial evidence such as DNA or CCTV evidence for a suspect to be charged. A total of 48 criminals had been recently convicted but not everyone arrested for going equipped to a burglary was convicted of the crime.

·       Communication with communities – Members asked about communication with the public including minority groups and residents’ associations. Insp Austin said that she used the force’s Twitter account and appreciated retweets and ‘likes’ from councillors on a range of issues. She encouraged them to give out the information to hard to reach groups. A retired volunteer put out weekly information about burglaries and other policing updates.

·       Aggressive begging – Members asked if the so-called ‘Nottingham knockers’ (or doorstep sellers) was part of a Serious Organised Crime gang as this was worrying elderly residents who were uncertain whether they should report it. Insp Austin confirmed there was not a link at the moment, but all incidents should be reported if they are suspicious as the information was useful. Doorstep callers should also carry licences from the chief of police. Online crime reporting was also a good method of reporting crime.

·       Alternative giving campaign – Members asked about this campaign, which was supported by the local charity, Renewed Hope Trust. This helped to educate people in town centres to continue to give money and support homeless people but to do this by giving money to charities such as RHT who are supporting homeless people, rather than giving money to people who are begging. Officers said they could send further information to Members.

·       Parking near schools – Members asked about dangerous parking near schools. Ultimately parking was not led by police, it was an area of enforcement led by the Council. The Community Safety Officer said that they were working with the JET team and parking enforcement team to educate parents about the risks of dangerous parking. An initiative was also taking place with the fire service who went with the enforcement teams and set off their sirens if they could not get down a road of parked cars. Members were advised to get in contact with the JET team if they had concerns about parking near particular schools.

·       Photography and upskirting offences – there had been a recent conviction for this offence as well as successful investigations into indecent exposure. This was not a particularly common offence. Most of the sex offending was now sexting and indecent images passed by young people or at the end of a relationship.

Members thanked the Borough Commander and her team for their work and also thanked the Council’s community safety team for their work.

RESOLVED that the annual community safety partnership work 2019/20 be noted.

Supporting documents: