Agenda and minutes

To approve as correct the minutes of the meetings held on 17 October 2013 and authorise the Chairman to sign them.

The minutes of the meeting held on 17 October, 2013 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

At the request of a member a discussion took place on whether or not the term Hate Crime should be used in the revised strategy.

The purpose behind the review was to prepare the Council for the changes to the Anti-Social Behaviour Strategy nationally. We were looking to ensure that anyone with an issue with anti-social behaviour is dealt with consistently wherever the complaint was directed.

Hate Crime can be defined as Crimes committed against someone because of their disability, gender identity, race, religion or belief, or sexual orientation and should be reported to the police.

Hate crimes can include:

·         Threatening behaviour

·         Assault

·         Robbery

·         Damage to property

·         Inciting others to commit race crimes

·         Harassment.

 The debate was going beyond the remit of the Committee therefore the Chairman terminated the discussion.

To receive an oral report from the Borough Commander.

The Borough Commander provided an update on the level of burglary within the borough. He detailed the various initiatives being undertaken by the Metropolitan Police and its partners to tackle the problem. All the work was paying off with burglary across the board down.

For a rolling 12 month period

·         Burglary was down by 9.2%

·         Residential burglary down by 4.9%

·         Non-residential burglary down by 21.6%.

·         Detection rates were at 12.4% the second best in London.

The Borough Commander indicated his officers would be liaising with the Bexley Force who had a better detection rate to see what additional steps they were taking.

In response to a question regarding sentencing the Borough Commander commented that in general burglars were sentenced to serve time, the situation with those guilty of theft from Motor Vehicles was not so good.

The Committee noted the report.

To follow.

In 2011/12 the Community Safety Partnership introduced a new operating model for tackling longer-term community safety issues that require a multi-agency planned response, such as burglary, vehicle theft, and anti-social behaviour. The rationale for moving to this model, which replaced ‘type of crimes’ working groups with three cluster location groups (north, central and south), meant that partners could focus on a variety of issues affecting an area.

The Location groups correspond with the clusters Havering Police use to deploy safer neighbourhood teams. The six wards in each cluster were as follows:

·         North – Havering Park, Gooshays, Mawneys, Petits, Heaton and Harold Wood;

·         Central – Brooklands, Romford Town, Squirrels Heath, Emerson Park, Hylands and St Andrews;

·         South – Elm Park, South Hornchurch, Hacton, Cranham, Upminster and Rainham & Wennington.

Two high priority burglary areas had been chosen per cluster and partners had visited all properties in the area handing out advice, time switches, etc.

We felt that when these activities were going on local councillors should be notified.

Questions were asked regarding how Ward priorities were fed into the process. Officers advised that matters would be formalised once the new Safer Neighbourhood Boards were introduced. Currently input from the Ward Panels is fed through the Cluster Groups which are attended by an officer.

We have noted the report.

To receive an oral update from officers.

We received an update on the work of the Troubled Families project.

·         386 families have been identified to date

·         Of these 275 meet ASB/Crime criteria

·         33 (representing 75% of known gang members) meet the gang nominal

·         46 fall within housing/welfare reforms/debt problems nominal

·         3 have Child Protection Plans

·         5 were known to MARAC

·         15 attended the PRU

·         5 top post codes are RM3 – 86, RM 5 – 32, RM7 – 30, RM13 – 30, RM12 - 25

An increase in child to adult domestic violence had been identified. Another problem which had become apparent was that potential young offenders were forming their own networks through meeting at the PRU.

The idea was that Council’s would be paid for their work on Troubled Families by the government provided they met their targets. The four year overall target was to assist 415 families and officers were confident we would achieve this.

Officers anticipated that the programme would be extended for a further 5 years.

The Council were still struggling to engage with partners especially health professionals. Officers would continue to invite health to participate.

The Committee noted the report.

We have reaffirmed our desire to visit Hornchurch Town Centre and re-visit Romford Town Centre before Christmas to see how the Night Time Economy was being managed.

Officers advised that from the 6 December the Triage unit would be operating in Romford Town centre and the police would have the use of a mobile office.