Agenda item

The Panel received a report and accompanying presentation which set out the Council’s response to the Baroness Casey Review into the standards of behaviour and the internal culture of the Metropolitan Police Service. The report was introduced by Cllr Adam Jogee, Cabinet Member for Community Safety & Cohesion, as set out in the agenda pack at pages 7 to 23.

The Cabinet Member welcomed the fact that the Panel had requested an update on this subject, given the concerns shared by a lot of people about racism, homophobia, misogyny and the generally shocking mind sets of some members of the police, as outlined in the Casey report. The Cabinet Member set out that he had emailed members separately outlining the discussions he had with the police. The Cabinet Member commented it was incumbent upon Members to keep our communities safe and to hold the police to account.

The Cabinet Member advised that he and the Leader saw their role as acting as a critical friend and were not there to make excuses on behalf of the police. To that end, there had been frank discussions with senior police colleagues. The Met Commissioner had visited Haringey twice in recent months and the Cabinet Member and Leader met regularly with the Borough Commander. The Cabinet Member set out that during these discussions there was no space for Police colleagues to not understand how seriously the Council was taking the issues raised in the Casey report. The Cabinet Member reiterated that the administration was not seeking to do the Police’s job for them, but that they would be seeking to hold them to account.

The following arose during the discussion of this report:

a.    The Panel commented that one concern that had been raised in the past was that a lot of police officers in London had been drawn from all over the country and perhaps did not understand the different communities and cultures that they served. Members would like to see police officers be representative of communities like those in Haringey. Members sought clarity about how future community engagement events with police would focus on the bigger picture, rather than quite localised problems. The Cabinet Member responded that, in his experience, the vast majority of police officers were hard working, law-abiding, public servants who did understand the communities they served and were willing to learn about them when they did not. It was commented that the Safer Neighbourhood Teams did care about communities and wanted to serve them.

b.    The Cabinet Member set out that the background to this was 14 years of austerity and sustained attacks on the funding model for public services, including policing which had led to the scaling back of Safer Neighbourhood policing. Within this context, morale within the police was not great. The Cabinet Member acknowledged the need for police to represent the communities that they served and that he had seen the Police have stalls in Wood Green where they held pop-up recruitment drives.

c.    In response to a question about a previous meeting between councillors and the Police in July, the Cabinet Member advised that all colleagues were invited but that it was arranged at short-notice, based on the Met Commissioner’s availability and the fact that he wanted Haringey to be the first borough that he visited due to the unique history and challenges of policing in Haringey.

d.    In light of the conclusions of the Casey Review, the Panel characterised the institutional structure of the Met as being racist and sought clarification from the Cabinet Member whether he agreed with this assessment. In response, the Cabinet Member set out that everyone could see evidence that there had been examples of racism, sexism and other discriminatory behaviour, but that he did not think it was helpful for him to give a yes or no answer to this question. The Cabinet Member set out that he was not here to make excuses for an agency that was failing to uphold the standards expected of it as a public body. The Cabinet Member set out that he had been assured personally by the Commissioner of the Metropolitan police that the examples of this appalling behaviour would not be allowed to continue. As councillors, it was important that Members call out instances where they have seen examples of discriminatory behaviour.

e.    The Panel set out that the Police had been found to be institutionally racist following the Stephen Lawrence enquiry and that very little seemed to have changed since then. There was a new Community Safety & Hate Crime strategy out to consultation and Members queried whether as part of this, the police should be given increased powers with a greater police presence, or whether their role in community justice should be reduced.  In response, the Cabinet Member advised that he wanted to see a Haringey where people were free from fear of criminals and fear from the police violence. The issue was not about whether the police had more or less power but it was about police doing their jobs properly . The Cabinet Member advised that whilst in his role he would make sure that the police were held to account and that they did their jobs properly.

f.     The Chair set out that in her experience the institutional discriminatory behaviour was embedded within in the structure of the organisation and that the concerns raised in the Macpherson Report had still not been addressed. It was commented that until the issue was fully recognised, it would never be tackled. It was suggested that the key issue during the riots in Tottenham both in 1985 and in 2011 was to do with relations with the police. The Chair advocated that it was important that the findings of the Casey Review were embraced and that there it was a catalyst for change.

g.    The Chair sought clarification about the Met’s commitment to put more officers and PCSOs into local neighbourhoods and questioned how many additional officers this would mean. In response, the Cabinet Member advised that they were still working through this and he had not been given an exact figure, but that he would speak to the Police and see if there was an exact figure on this. (Action: Cllr Jogee). The Cabinet Member set out that community policing needed to mean community policing and that the police should be embedded within our communities.

h.    In response to a question about what strategy the police had to address a lack of diversity and ensure that their values aligned with the values of our communities, the Cabinet Member commented that this was a question that should be put to the Police at the next meeting. The Cabinet Member commented that the question about police values seemed like the right question and that if policing was done by consent then it had to reflect the values of our communities. Officers noted that one of the key recommendations from the Baroness Casey Review was around recruitment and making the force more representative.

i.      The Panel commented that there used to be regular meetings between all members and the police in the Civic Centre and questioned whether these meetings could be reinstated. The Cabinet Member responded that if there was the appetite then he would look at reinstating these but reflected that the last meeting with Members and the borough commander that he arranged was only attended by five councillors. The Cabinet Member agreed to give some thought about how best to take forward the request for regular all member meetings with the police. (Action: Cllr Jogee).

j.      The Panel commented that there seemed to be a marked difference in community policing across different parts of the borough and queried what could be done to make this more uniformed and to learn lessons from where this worked well. In response, the Cabinet Member acknowledged the need to learn from where this was done well but emphasised that a key element of this was around community by-in. The Cabinet Member advised that one of the senior officers within the Haringey & Enfield BCU was looking at how this could be improved. The Cabinet Member set out that the Commissioner had identified a renewed focus on community policing.

k.    The Panel sought clarification whether the police and Council’s priorities were aligned in terms of local policing in Haringey. In response, the Cabinet Member advised that priorities aligned in terms hotspots, trends, domestic violence, alcohol and drug related crime. The Cabinet Member recognised that priorities could change but the overarching values were aligned.

l.      The Chair of Haringey Neighbourhood Watch reiterated the fact that, following the Casey Report and the development of a New Met for London, the police seemed to be putting a new emphasis on community policing and that he had been told that undertaking a community policing role would be a key consideration for promotion within the Met going forward. In terms of numbers, it was suggested that the Met were looking to recruit an additional 500 PCSOs in the coming months. It was suggested that the numbers and timescales were set out within A New Met for London.

RESOLVED.

Noted