Agenda item

The Chairman invited Inspector Moseley to speak to his presentation.

Inspector Moseley reported that policing resources and buildings of Harrow, Brent and Barnet had merged 14 months previously.

Concerns had been expressed about police being able to attend ‘Immediate’ calls quickly enough but data showed that this had not changed since the merger. Also, there had been improvements to ‘101’ calls and in the reporting of crime.

‘Violence against a person’ is the highest reported crime in Barnet and covered a wide range of severity from a push to DV.

Inspector Moseley noted that processes had not been disrupted as part of the merger. He had not noticed a huge difference or any drawbacks from his perspective in the community. There had been an increase in the number of police officers for the Met Police of 2000 following several years of cuts. Barnet would receive around 320 in front line posts.

The Chairman enquired how many constables would be stationed in Barnet. Inspector Moseley would ask for this information after the meeting.

Action: Inspector Moseley

Inspector Moseley stated that an update on robbery had been requested at the last meeting. Nationally robbery had increased by 11% (robbery offences were defined by being carried out in the street so did not include burglary). Incidents of robbery in Barnet were currently around the midpoint of the 32 London Boroughs and it is a priority crime for Barnet. The Met Police had appointed 15 new personnel to its Focus Desk who would be reviewing all robberies and suspects. Hotspots had been identified in Barnet and extra patrols would be provided for these areas. In 2019 a spate of robberies had taken place in Finchley and investigation had found that youths were being targeted close to some of the schools for items such as headphones by individuals from outside the Borough. Several interventions including Safer Transport Teams running operations on buses and around transport hubs had resulted in a decrease in these crimes. Advice had also been given to schools. Four school children had recently been arrested and had accounted for many of the crimes. 

The Chairman asked what the Council could to support the police. Inspector Moseley noted that the work with youths would help and should continue and was helpful in educating and empowering young people, as well as preventing gang-related crime. The Community Safety Manager, Matt Leng, noted that robbery victims were changing due to new technology such as high valuable items that could be worn or carried. The Community Safety Team was working on education, awareness and providing information on property marking via Immobilise.com. It would be helpful if this could be highlighted further through the task and finish groups and that victims could be encouraged to report their perpetrators as it had been found some were known to the victims.

The Head of Service, NPS, reported that she will be rolling out to Barnet a piece of work she was introducing in Enfield currently. This enabled the team to focus on cheaper housing and properties where individuals may be at risk. 

The Community Safety Manager noted that in the last year alone the Councils CCTV had assisted the police over 40 times by spotting footage of robberies and had contributed to over 20 robbery related arrests. The Community Safety Manager suggested that we should look for ways to up this even further – including by providing the CCTV control room with regular briefings on the robbery trends in Barnet, and by taking the medium and long-term robbery trends into account when conducting the review of CCTV camera locations.

Action: Peter Clifton