Agenda item

The Partnership received a report which set out the MOPAC local priority setting process for 2019/20. In addition to agreed local priorities for Haringey in 2018/19 such as Violence with Injury and Personal Robbery, there were also London-wide policing priorities on mandatory high-harm crimes such as; sexual violence, domestic abuse, CSE, weapon-based crime and hate crime. The report was introduced by Sandeep Broca, intelligence Analysis Manager as set out in the agenda pack at pages 37-41.

The following points were raised in response to the discussion of this item:

a.    The Cabinet Member highlighted that there had been an announcement from the Mayor’s Office that there would be an extra £110m for policing in the next financial year and sought assurances around when this would translate into seeing extra officers on the beat. In response, the Borough Commander acknowledged a desire to see more police officers on the streets but cautioned that there would inevitably be a lag between the announcement, undertaking an effective recruitment process and then training and deploying those officers on the ground. The Borough Commander also highlighted that there was currently a vacancy factor within the BCU hence, in effect, the Metropolitan Police were not even able to recruit officers to the level that they could currently afford. Therefore, adding more officers to that frontline offer would take some time. The Borough Commander agreed to bring an update on recruitment of additional officers back to the partnership in due course. (Action: Helen Millichap).

b.    In response to a request for prioritisation of car theft as part of the wider robbery priority, the Borough Commander advised that robbery required violence in order to meet the definition. Concerns around car theft were acknowledged but the Partnership was advised that priority was given to the high harm basket of crimes. The Borough Commander suggested that this may  be an issue that members of the public could address with their local ward panels with a request for extra resources within a specific location or area, capacity permitting.

c.    The Partnership advised that there were some ongoing concerns within the community around reporting crimes through the non-emergency telephone number, as well as reporting crimes online. In response,  the Borough Commander acknowledged issues with the  101 telephone line but advised that the website had been completely updated to accommodate online reporting and that she was not aware of any issues. The Borough Commander encouraged anyone with concerns to feed these back to Neil Billany.

RESOLVED

     I.        To note that Haringey’s agreed local priorities for 2018/19 are Violence with Injury (Non-Domestic) and Personal Robbery. Whilst some positive improvements have been noted in both of these categories, (-7% and -1% respectively), both of these remain significant challenges for the borough. The seriousness of such incidents continues to also remain high, with levels of injury sustained often being significant.

    II.        To note that whilst some other crime categories are also experiencing challenging performance, such as burglary, the focus on Violence and Robbery over the past year appears to have had a positive effect.

  III.        To note that Haringey experiences over 2,000 violent crimes per year and almost 1,800 robberies, equating to one of each of these offences approximately every 4 hours, throughout the year.

  IV.        Due to these factors, the Partnership agreed that Violence with Injury (Non-Domestic) and Personal Robbery remained key local priorities for Haringey, along with the basket of high-harm crimes (sexual violence, domestic abuse, child sexual exploitation, weapon-based crime and hate crime) and anti-social behaviour. These priorities would support a number of ongoing workstreams in Haringey, including the refreshed Community Safety Strategy, the Young People at Risk strategy, the refreshed Borough Plan and the North Area Violence Reduction Group (NAVRG).

   V.        To note that MOPAC would be liaising with Haringey to determine local priorities. This would take place between February and March, with a final decision to be agreed by 22^nd March 2019. Priorities for 2019/20 would be published on 5^th April 2019.