Issue - meetings

That the work of the Community Safety Partnership be commended.

The Public Protection Manager (Community) presented an overview of the Community Safety Partnership’s activities and progress over the past 12 months, as reported to the Committee on an annual basis.  She spoke about the effectiveness of the partnership, the role of the People Are Safe Board in overseeing operational activities and links with the Public Service Board.  Details of work undertaken during 2015/16 were set out in the local activity plan.

A summary was given of crime and disorder statistics for 2015/16 and it was reported that the slight increase in victim-based crime in the county so far in 2016/17 mirrored the regional position.  The focus on intelligence-led incidents would continue, making greater use of Statistical Process Control (SPC) charts to monitor performance.

The effectiveness of this multi-agency approach was praised by Councillor Paul Cunningham.

Councillor Richard Jones asked whether the reduction in anti-social behaviour figures was due to fewer reports.  Whilst he had received feedback to issues raised with the Council, he was aware of frustrations amongst some members of the public who had been given no responses, which affected their willingness to report further incidents.

Chief Inspector Sharon McCairn pointed out the rise in anti-social behaviour figures since April 2016 following a change in the recording process.  She said that calls logged with the Control Room were allocated an incident number which should be routinely given to the caller.  She would look into why this was not the case but would encourage individuals to ask for the incident number.  On reported drug-related incidents, assurance was given that the reliability and content of all intelligence was assessed to help build up a picture and decide on the appropriate course of action, however it was not feasible to act on every report.

The Public Protection Manager explained that the Council’s Community Safety team had clear procedures in place to share intelligence with Police colleagues.  Councillor Jones said that Members could liaise with the team on behalf of residents who had not received feedback.  The Public Protection Manager said that officers were expected to respond to those reporting incidents and would reinforce this message with the team.  She agreed to speak to Councillor Jones following the meeting about the issues he had raised.

Following a request by Councillor Robin Guest, Chief Inspector McCairn agreed to provide the latest trend data on hate-crime incidents which had increased across the whole region.

Councillor Paul Shotton thanked the Anti-Social Behaviour Co-ordinator and his team for their help in resolving a recent incident alongside the Police.  He spoke about the involvement of Streetscene officers in sharing intelligence on crimes and referred to the ‘Phoenix’ initiative which helped young offenders to re-focus their lives in a positive way.

In respect of Councillor Jones’ comments, Councillor Arnold Woolley was also aware of similar instances where outcomes had not been reported to complainants.  The officers responded to queries on arrangements for Public Space Protection Orders (PSPO) and the centralised approach for tackling serious and organised crimes through multi-agency  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36