To receive a report from Superintendent Cheryl Burden (to follow)
Minutes:
Superintendent Burden advised the sub-committee of the current position with the Local Policing Model. Following the introduction of the Local Policing Model in June 2013 every ward has been allocated a dedicated named PC and PCSO, and a sergeant who was responsible for that ward. Sergeants might supervise more than one ward. For Havering each of the three clusters had been allocated 5 sergeants which meant that one sergeant in each cluster supervised two wards.
In addition to these dedicated teams Havering had a further 3 sergeants, 70 PC’s and 22 PCSO’s. A Town Centre team comprising of 2 PS’s and 14 PC’s had been created to tackle the area where most of the crime and anti-social behaviour took place. The other PC’s were located within cluster based teams which had the flexibility to move across the cluster to deal with emerging crime and disorder issues.
However, under the Local Policing Model these officers had taken on a number of roles and responsibilities which had not previously been in their remit. These included:
· These officers would investigate low-risk, high volume crime that affected the day-to-day quality of life of local people;
· Undertook central ‘Aid’ commitments eg public order, football, reassurance patrols in Central London;
· Appointment cars - Havering currently had one car per cluster resourced 16/7;
· Hospital guards, crime scene management, constant watches within custody;
· Resourcing Public Access Points. 6 points within Havering which were open Wednesday and Thursdays 7pm-8pm and Saturdays 2pm-3pm. Superintendent Burden advised that with the approval of the Mayor of London an additional Access Point would be provided in the north of the borough, the days and times to be determined locally. Staffing for this new access point would be shared by all 6 wards in the north cluster;
· Training new probationary constables during their 10 week street duties course. Havering had received 55 new probationary constables;
· Backfilling Emergency Response Teams if their levels fell below minimum strengths. The Commissioner had made a commitment that these teams would be maintained at certain levels. Within Havering since LPM we had seen a 30% increase in calls which required an emergency response.
Superintendent Burden reported that Havering police had seen an improvement in response times to emergency calls, they had attended 40% more appointments with victims than they had prior to the introduction of the Local Policing Model, and they had seen a reduction in many types of recorded crimes and some increase in victim satisfaction and detection rates.
However it had been recognised that within communities the public felt that they were getting less policing from their teams. One reason for the lack of visibility might be to do with the shift pattern, which had been designed to meet demand. Commander Lucy D’Orsi had been undertaking a review of the Local Policing Model. She had looked at resourcing, training, structures and why officers were being taken away from doing things that made them more visible.
Commander D’Orsi had looked at the types of incidents that were occurring in neighbourhoods and when. Obviously lots of anti-social behaviour happened later, so this pushed the shift pattern into evenings, which was when fewer members of the public were out and about. Commander D’Orsi had made 23 recommendations to the Commissioners Management Board. It had been accepted that the one model fits all approach did not work and that there needed to be some flexibility. It had also been recognised that there was a need to define what the local neighbourhood teams should be doing in order to increase visibility and improve community engagement and public confidence.
The Superintendent also provided details of the 18 ward panels.
The Sub-Committee thanked Superintendent Burden for her report.