(Agenda Item 8)
Present for this item:
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Councillor Mark Watson
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Councillor Jane Avis, Chair of the Licensing Committee
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Andy Opie, Director of Safety
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Cheryll Wright, Senior Manager Policy Performance and Partnerships
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Paul Astbury, Deputy BCU Commander
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Adam Kerr, National Probation Service
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Paula Doherty, LBC Domestic Violence
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Malcolm Saunders, Croydon Neighbourhood Watch
Apologies for this item had been received from:
Bernadette Alves (Public Health), Frederick Clarke (Mighty Men of Valour), Ian Lewis (LBC), Paula Swann (CCG), Matthew Sims (Croydon BID), Andy Tarrant (Borough Commander Met Police) and Caroline Mack (Croydon Citizens Advice Bureau).
The Cabinet Member gave a presentation to introduce the item. This has been added to the council website and can be seen here.
Crime and disorder
In response to Members questions, the Cabinet Member for Communities, Safety and Justice agreed that with regard to the evening and night time economy in Croydon, there had been a noticeable reduction in the numbers of people in the town centre since the closure of Tiger Tiger.
Paul Astbury, Deputy BCU Commander added that Tiger Tiger had been a hot spot for crime and disorder on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings and that its closure had resulted in some police resources being returned to their teams. He said that footfall on a Thursday evening had fallen from 500-600 people to 300-400 though the numbers on Fridays and Saturdays had not changed significantly.
The Director of Safety stated that this pattern had been seen in other areas of London.
Councillor Jane Avis, Chair of the Licensing Committee, asked the Deputy BCU Commander why there seemed to be little policing at clubs outside the town centre despite requests for support from these clubs. Paul Astbury replied that resources were allocated in response to demand and that crime and disorder was centralised on the town centre. He added that this tended to be anti-social behaviour, violence, theft and that it was often alcohol and drug related.
The Cabinet Member stated that the council had conducted a fear of crime survey recently and that the results were being collated. He added that this had also collected demographic data so gaps in reaching some communities could be identified.
Hate crime
The Cabinet Member stated that:
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The Board was working to encourage people to report hate crime
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Better reporting mechanisms were needed as in many cases the police were unable to act but it was important that incidents are recorded
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Many people do not consider low level hate crime to be a crime
The Deputy BCU Commander added that Croydon was leading a London-wide project on hate crime in order to raise awareness of the issue. He stated that however minor it is very serious to the person on the receiving end and that minor hate crime can escalate to something more serious.
Prevent
The Cabinet Member stated that there were many reasons why young people were in contact through Prevent and that there was a Youth Crime Strategy in place to support them. Croydon was not a Prevent hot spot, did not therefore receive Home Office funding and did not face the same level of issues as other areas of London.
The Director of Safety added that the Channel process was described in the report and that interest in Prevent had risen up the agenda since the Paris attacks in 2015. He added that there was a statutory duty to deliver Prevent and that training was in place for teams including in schools and with social workers. He confirmed that although there had been an increase in referrals through the Channel process, this had not converted in to an increase in Prevent cases and the number remained static.
Youth Crime Strategy
The Director of Safety informed Members that through the Youth Crime Strategy good performance had been seen with reductions in the number of youth reoffending cases. In addition there were fewer young people in the justice system and there was positive work in relation to youth custody.
Domestic violence
The LBC Team Manager for Domestic Violence provided Members with information about a number of campaigns which had been run over the past 12 months or so. She added that there was a board strategy for dealing with domestic violence, that Croydon was participating in London-wide work and that it had been shown that children suffering sexual exploitation were more likely to go on to enter into relationships with domestic violence.
Repeat offending
Adam Kerr, the representative from National Probation Service Croydon informed the Committee that he could only comment on this aspect of the service as the CRC representative was not at the meeting.
He added however that the CRC had experienced considerable change recently and had moved to a cohort model.
He stated that there were stretch targets in relation to court reports, that these had been met and that the number one priority is to protect the public. The service used a number of interventions to support first and repeat offenders. In addition, he reported that over the past few months Croydon had been leading on a project to provide mentoring and coaching support to sex offenders alongside Circles UK with a view to preventing reoffending.
The Director of Safety confirmed that the CRC attended Safer Croydon Partnership Board meetings though it had not been present at the last meeting and that it was changing the way it supported the Board. He added however that day-to-day it was as effective as ever and that there was no risk in relation to the CRC.
Funding and outcomes
The Director of Safety informed the Committee that over the past 2-3 years the Partnerships had seen reductions in funding resulting in more focus on priorities and the need to gather evidence and monitor results. The Partnership had a good programme of activity with £600,000 coming from MOPAC and the GLA for a number of projects (including on reoffending, mentoring) and that some funding was now going to the voluntary sector to fund projects (eg relating to victims).
Road safety
The Deputy BCU Commander agreed that Croydon has a poor record in relation to people killed or injured on the road and accepted that the work of the Safer Transport Team was not reflected in the Partnership strategy.
He added that the Safer Transport Team was not within his remit and undertook to inform the Command of the Committee's concerns about road safety and its interest in:
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Priorities for enforcement
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Poor roads/ junctions
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Driver behaviour
The Cabinet Member said that he had met with the Safer Transport Team and that it could provide a report to the Partnership in the coming months.
In forming its conclusions, the Committee noted that it has a statutory duty to review community safety through the work of the Safer Croydon Partnership. In the past the Committee and the Police have been frustrated that much of the focus of this scrutiny has been on the activities of the Police rather than the partnership as a whole as they have been the only partners to attend the scrutiny meeting. In 2015, the Committee expressed its dissatisfaction with this and specifically asked the Partnership to ensure a good presence at the meeting on 22 March 2016.
Once again the Police were in attendance and the Committee was pleased to hear from the National Probation Service representative for Croydon. However, the Committee again received apologies from many other partners agreed to make a recommendation to the Safer Croydon Partnership that the 2017 meeting be diarised as soon as the date is confirmed by the Committee.
In addition, the Committee decided to make recommendations in relation to minor hate crime and road safety including that an item on the Safer Transport Team be added to the 2016/17 work programme for the Streets and Environment Scrutiny Sub-Committee.
The Committee therefore RESOLVED to:
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Recommend to the Safer Croydon Partnership that it notes the date of the scrutiny meeting in 2017 and that partners be formally asked to attend the meeting
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Seek an update on minor hate crime at its review of the Safer Croydon Partnership in 2017
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An item on the Safer Transport Team and specifically road deaths and injuries be added to the 2016/17 work programme for the Streets and Environment Scrutiny Sub-Committee.
The Chair thanked everyone for their contributions to the meeting.