Agenda item

The Chairman welcomed those present to the meeting.  Mr Musa McArthur, Hillingdon Youth Councillor and Member of the Youth Parliament, advised that the Youth Council had undertaken a knife crime survey of young people in Hillingdon.  The survey had aimed to identify young people’s concerns as well as solicit suggestions to resolve these.  68 young people had responded to the survey which was a good sample but it was recognised that it was not necessarily representative of all young people in Hillingdon.  It was hoped that the survey could be more widely publicised in schools and then undertaken on an annual basis.  Mr McArthur asked if it would be possible for the Council to help in terms of encouraging schools to work collaboratively with the Youth Council so that the voices of more young people could be represented.  He also welcomed feedback from those present to improve the questions included in the survey. 

 

Members praised Mr McArthur and the Youth Council for the work that they had undertaken regarding the knife crime survey.  Although the result might not be entirely representative, it was recognised that the responses provided partners with an insight into young people’s concerns.  Mr Dan Kennedy, the Council’s Director of Housing, Environment, Education Performance and Health and Wellbeing, advised that he had contact with the head teachers and governing bodies within Hillingdon so would be able to help Mr McArthur to build relationships with the schools to then increase young people’s engagement with Hillingdon Youth Council.  It was suggested that consideration also be given to the involvement of representatives from the Youth Council in training events for school governors on giving young people a voice. 

 

Concern was expressed that knife crime was becoming ‘normal’ for young people.  This was reflected in the survey response from one young person who, in response to a question about what further education or training they would like around knife crime, they said that they would like first aid training.  This reflected a shift from preventative to reactive measures and a sense of inevitability.  It was thought that further action needed to be taken to empower young people.

 

It was suggested that there was a lack of education for young people about knives.  Although Mr McArthur and his peers at school had once received a 5-10 minute presentation about knife crime during an assembly, it had not been engaging and therefore would not have been particularly effective.  He suggested that consideration be given to using one of the weekly one hour personal development lessons to talk to students about knife crime and the implications. 

 

The West Area Basic Command Unit’s (BCU’s) Chief Superintendent (CS) Peter Gardner thanked the Youth Council for its survey.  He noted that the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) sometimes found it difficult to reach young people.  However, a dedicated named police officer had been identified to deliver knife crime education at each secondary school in the Borough.  As such, it was concerning that Mr McArthur’s school had not received this.  CS Gardner would look into this matter. 

 

Going forward, CS Gardner advised that educating primary school children in Year 6 and Year 7 would be a priority.  It was hoped that intervention at this early stage would prevent young people from carrying knives when they moved on to secondary school. 

 

Mr Kennedy advised that a range of activities and measures had been provided in schools to address issues such as knife crime, including knife arches.  However, it was recognised that there was no simple solution and more work needed to be undertaken to educate young people about the risks of drug related activity and of carrying knives (even when this was supposedly to defend themselves). 

 

The knife crime survey results showed that 60% of respondents would welcome an increase in stop and search.  However, Mr McArthur cautioned that the sample was not necessarily representative of all young people in Hillingdon. 

 

There had been just under 700 stop and searches undertaken in Hillingdon in January 2020.  Of these, approximately 26% had resulted in positive outcomes, with 60-70% of these positive outcomes being in relation to drugs.  It was suggested that stop and search was an effective tool if undertaken sensitively, respectfully and professionally and that there appeared to be an increase in the support of its use.  However, action needed to be undertaken to improve the relationship between communities and the police and that the provision of diversionary opportunities for young people would be preferable to an increase in stop and search. 

 

The updated SHP Performance Scorecard Summary circulated at the meeting included three targets in relation to stop and search: Increase drugs stop searches; Increase weapons stop and searches; and Increase stop and searches for Other category.  Members queried why the commentary included on the handout stated that there had been significant decreases of 33.5%, 18.4% and 48.9% respectively between the last two quarters measured when effort was supposed to have been made to increase the numbers.  CS Gardner advised that this might have been impacted when a number of officers were taken off the Borough during the Extinction Rebellion protests in April and October 2019.  It was noted that further investigations would need to be undertaken to determine whether the stop and search information included in the SHP Performance Scorecard Summary was accurate. 

 

Concern was expressed that the loss of youth centres had contributed to an increase in young people carrying knives.  It was suggested that consideration be given to the provision of alternative positive diversionary activities to engage those young people that were more susceptible to knife crime.  Members also suggested that the Youth Council look into what services young people in the Borough actually wanted and what they would engage with.  This could be incorporated into the Youth Council survey. 

 

Mr McArthur advised that he had started a youth entrepreneurial scheme for young people to channel their energy into productive opportunities.  It was hoped that the scheme would help young people into business and off the streets, thus resulting in more positive outcomes for them. 

 

CS Gardner stated that it was unfair to suggest that the MPS did not engage with young people.  Although there were fewer police officers than there had been previously, engagement was still undertaken through activities such as the Police Cadets, as well as boxing and football clubs. 

 

CS Gardner advised that the MPS had made significant investment in its online reporting portal.  Reports made via the portal were redirected as appropriate.  In addition, if young people wanted to report something anonymously, they could do this through Crimestoppers.  Crimestoppers telephone operators had been trained to deal with young people as well as with people in crisis and the contact telephone number was widely publicised. 

 

Mr Lakhbir Randhawa, Lead Programme Delivery Officer for Hillingdon Youth Council, advised that, in addition to the knife crime survey, 2,588 young people aged 11-18 from seven schools in Hillingdon had taken part in the national Make Your Mark survey.  This survey had identified knife crime as being the biggest issue of concern to young people in Hillingdon. 

 

It was suggested that there were a number of influences regarding crime which included home and society.  Irrespective of investment in education, the development of youth centres and the availability of opportunities for young people, there would still always be crime.  Negative influences originating from home and society would be much harder to address. 

 

Members agreed that knife crime was an issue of great concern that was not going to be resolved in the immediate future.  As such, once the current Select Panel had completed its review of children’s dental services, it would be asked to undertake a review of knife crime in the Borough.  Mr Randhawa recognised that there were a lot of pockets of work being undertaken across Hillingdon to address the issue of knife crime but suggested that these had not been joined up. 

 

Ms Jacqui Robertson, the Council’s Community Safety Manager, circulated a revised report which updated Members on the Safer Hillingdon Partnership’s performance against its targets for 2019/2020.  It was noted that:

1.    TARGET: Reduce residential burglary by 1% per annum for the next three years (2017/18 to 2019/20) – residential burglaries had increased by 6.7% between Q1 (460) and Q2 (491) in 2019/20.  This also showed an increase on the starting figures in 2017/18 of 329 for Q1 and 429 for Q2.  Concern was expressed that, although progress had been made during the first half of 2018/2019 (Q1 had been 369 and Q2 had been 229), the figures for the first half of the final year of the period being measured were worse that the starting figures in 2017/18. 

2.    TARGET: Reduce non-residential burglary by 1% per annum for the next three years (2017/18 to 2019/20) – although non-residential burglary had reduced from 129 in Q1 to 119 in Q2, the projection for the year was 496 against the target of 460.

3.    TARGET: Reduce violence with injury by 5% per annum for the next three years (2017/18 to 2019/20) – violence with injury had increased by 11.17% between Q1 (600) and Q2 (667) and the projected annual outturn (2,534) was expected to slightly exceed the full year target (2,530). 

4.    TARGET: Reduce violence without injury by 5% per annum for the next three years (2017/18 to 2019/20) – although violence without injury had reduced from 1,664 in Q1 to 1,219 in Q2, the projected outturn (5,766) for the year was significantly higher than the target (4,401).

5.    TARGET: Reduce personal robbery by 5% per annum for the next three years (2017/18 to 2019/20) – personal property robbery had decreased between Q1 (181) and Q2 (151) but was still projected (664) to exceed the target for the year (622).

6.    TARGET: Reduce business property robbery by 5% per annum for the next three years (2017/18 to 2019/20) – business property robbery had increased and was projected to reach 102 for the year against a target of 72.

7.    TARGET: To maintain current level of recorded violence against the person recorded against young people receiving a criminal justice disposal - this had increased between Q1 (19) and Q2 (23) and was projected to exceed its target (74) by 10.

8.    TARGET: Reduce ASB reported to the police by 5% per annum for the next three years (2017/18 to 2019/20) – there had been 2,353 ASB reports in Q1 and 2,617 in Q2.  The projected outturn for the year (9,940) was set to exceed the target (7,788) by 27.6%.

9.    TARGET: Reduce community and neighbourhood nuisance reports by 5% against the 2017/18 figure – there had been 292 incidents in Q1 and 352 in Q2.  The projected outturn for the year (1,288) was expected to exceed the target by 19.8% (1,075).

10.TARGET: Reduce incidents of fly tipping reported to Council ASBIT by 5% against the 2017/18 figure – there had been an increase in fly tipping between Q1 (263) and Q2 (325) and the projection for the whole year against the target (883) was 1,176; 33% above the target.  The outturn in 2018/19 had been 930.

11.TARGET: Increase number of repeat cases heard from 14% to the safe lives recommendation of 28% over 3 years by April 2020 – there had been a 1% increase in the number of cases identified between Q1 (21%) and Q2 (22%) but the projected outturn for the year was 22%. 

 

It was noted that eleven of the nineteen RAG rated targets were classified as ‘red’.  Mr Kennedy advised that target setting would take on board three year trends and set future targets ambitiously.  The ‘red’ ratings were challenges and it was hoped that the performance against these targets was as a result in spike in crime rather than changing trends. 

 

CS Gardner assured those present that BCUs were here to stay and that no one borough was favoured over another in the West Area BCU.  The move to BCUs was not just about reducing expenditure; it was anticipated that the changes would address the shortage of specialist officers.  CS Gardner advised that it was difficult to say whether the changes were for the better or worse but he was clear that things would have been worse if changes had not been made.  The BCU provided a lot more flexibility to move officers around to deal with big issues and capacity was now greater.  In addition, response officers were often only reporting officers so front line staff were now investigating low level crimes themselves. 

 

Concern was expressed by Members that, since the introduction of the Basic Command Unit in June 2018, Hillingdon had been left behind.  The issue of most concern was in relation to the increasing numbers of burglaries across the Borough.  Hillingdon’s previous performance had been very good and concern was highlighted when more than 300 residents had attended a recent event in relation to burglary prevention. 

 

Burglaries in Hillingdon had increased considerably over the last twelve months (26%).  To address this, a Burglary and Robbery squad had been set up and was already convicting double the number of offenders than had previously been achieved.  As a result, burglaries in the last three months were lower than during the same period in the previous year.  Proactive teams had been set up in Southall and South Acton and proactive work had been undertaken in Uxbridge South, Botwell and Heathrow Villages. 

 

CS Gardner advised Members that specialist teams were being located where they were needed: primary response was based in Uxbridge and a forensic team was based in Ruislip.  A team was based in Acton to undertake secondary investigations but the Committee was reassured that this did not inhibit the police response.  Mr Kennedy advised that crime statistics for Ealing and Hounslow were available for comparison and that, generally, levels of crime in Hillingdon were lower.  Whilst there had been a greater increase in burglaries in Hillingdon, the other two boroughs had had higher instances of other crimes. 

 

With regard to staffing levels, CS Gardner advised that there were currently 4% vacancies: 44 in the Safer Neighbourhoods Teams (SNT) and 30 in response.  Currently, 30-40% of officers on response teams were probationers.  Members were assured that getting the SNTs back up to capacity was a priority and that recruitment was currently underway and expected to be completed within the next couple of months. 

 

Insofar as retention was concerned, CS Gardner advised that West Area BCU tended to lose its officers to other areas of the MPS.  It was noted that some officers had also moved to the armed uplift at Heathrow airport. 

 

Although the West Area BCU had the second highest number of officers in the MPS (1,700), an additional 70 police officers were expected, plus an uplift, by the end of the year – a total of 275 police officers would be coming in so there would be more officers on the ground to help with the probationers.  When asked, CS Gardner advised that he did not yet know how many of these officers would be placed in Hillingdon.  Members asked that he provide this information once it was known.

 

A stabbing had taken place in Eastcote on 21 January 2020 where the victim had been followed to the restaurant that he’d entered to get help.  Residents were scared that perpetrators were not scared of the consequences of committing such crimes and were openly carrying knives in public.  CS Gardner assured Members that violence was a key priority for the MPS and the Government and that work around drug related violence was critical.  Individuals should not be permitted to feel confident about waving a knife around in public.  To this end, the uplift in the number of officers for the West Area BCU would be used for violence suppression – ten would be used for fugitives and the rest would provide a high visibility presence.  Officers from the Territorial Support Group (TSG) would also be working in the west Area during March 2020. 

 

Priorities for the West Area were offenders and hotspots.  CS Gardner noted that all response officers had been issued with tablets.  This would enable them to work remotely but also enable them to position themselves in the middle of hotspots which would act as a deterrent.  A review of the effectiveness of remote working was currently underway. 

 

Most officers started their shift from a police station.  Whilst there had previously been some issues with the technology available to police officers working remotely, this had been addressed in the next generation of technology that had been rolled out and which was now fit for purpose.  SNT officers were now also equipped with sufficient technology to be able to do their jobs.  However, CS Gardner did note that the West Area did not have enough vehicles which meant that officers would often have to use bicycles or use public transport. 

 

The Committee was advised that there were thirty individuals in the West Area that were prolific offenders.  When they were released from prison, police officers visited them and enforced the conditions of their release.  A plan of action had been developed for each of these individuals. 

 

Members queried whether taking witness/victim statements over the telephone was as useful as face-to-face contact as police officers would get the added benefit of being able to read body language.  CS Gardner noted that police officers took statements on the ground when they were present at the scene of a crime.  However, if a crime was reported online, the police did not attend the scene or the crime was unlikely to be solved, face-to-face meetings were not considered necessary.  It was thought important to complete victim impact statements and take witness statements face-to-face where possible.

 

Concern was expressed that there might have been an increase in crime in the vicinity of Uxbridge police station since the closure of the front desk.  CS Gardner advised that, although he was unaware of any increase in crime in that area, he would investigate this further. 

 

It was noted that the MPS estates programme was being revisited.  Following the uplift in the number of officers, more building space would be needed from which these additional officers would be able to work.  Members noted that it had previously been suggested that officers would be welcome to work from libraries and other Council buildings around Hillingdon.  CS Gardner advised that SNT officers should be offering drop in sessions which could be based in Council buildings. 

 

Whilst Members were aware of the drop in surgeries taking place across Hillingdon, there were challenges with regard to some Safer Neighbourhood Board meetings (SNB).  Some of these had been set for the same time/day as full Council meetings (despite these dates being flagged as unavailable in advance) which meant that Councillors would not be available for the SNB meeting. 

 

In the past, Ward Councillors had been advised of any serious incidents in their wards.  This had ceased to happen and Members queried whether there were any plans to reinstate this practice so that they could help to reduce mis-information. 

 

Members were advised that Inspector Rob Bryant would be retiring in February 2020.  The Chairman asked that the Committee’s thanks be passed on to Inspector Bryant for the effective work that he had undertaken during his time in Hillingdon.  Inspector Bryant had met regularly with Council officers to develop an action plan to deal with anti-social behaviour in the Borough.  The police and the Council also worked closely through the SHP Board and a number of joint initiatives had been developed to help achieve the SHP targets (some of these had been proactive, some had been reactive). 

 

Members queried what the conversion rates were in Hillingdon from reporting a crime to detection.  Sanctioned detection rates for burglary and robbery (where perpetrators had been identified and gone through the judicial process) had been lower than CS Gardner would have liked: 9% on burglary – it had previously been 15%.  For residential burglaries, this had increased from 3.6% to 6.3% and for robberies, this had increased from 1.3% to 9%.  It was thought that these increases had been as a result of the new Burglary and Robbery Squad. 

 

It was noted that better local intelligence was always needed and that it helped to improve results.  CS Gardner advised that the MPS now had dedicated intelligence analysts.

 

RESOLVED:  That:

1.    officers investigate whether the information included in the SHP Performance Scorecard Summary in relation to the three stop and search targets was accurate;

2.    CS Gardner update Members regarding how many of the additional officers would be placed in Hillingdon, once this information was known;

3.    CS Gardner identify where or not there had been an in crime in the area around Uxbridge police station since the closure of the front desk; 

4.    CS Gardner establish whether or not the practice of advising Ward Councillors of any serious incidents in their wards could be reinstated; and

5.    the discussion be noted.