Agenda item

·       Crime trends

·       BCU Policing update

(Relevant to all priority areas of the Community Safety Strategy)

Superintendent Rawlinson presented his slides.

Crime has generally reduced across London during the past few months, largely due to Covid. The North West BCU has the third highest overall crime rate in London. Barnet stands in the middle of the table of London Boroughs. 

Superintendent Rawlinson noted that violence against the person has increased slightly over this period, with the offences mainly in the south-east part of the Borough. There has also been a slight increase in violence with injury and without injury. Burglary had reduced in all but one Ward, and targets have been agreed for burglary hotspots.

There have been 38 fewer robberies than the previous year, a 3.4% decrease. Much of these offences were ‘youth on youth’ offences, such as mobile phone, ear pod and escooter thefts.

The Metropolitan Police has been resourcing and filling vacancies in its Youth Engagement Team over the past six months, which would be based in Colindale, aimed at tackling the youth on youth offences. The team would focus on engagement and diversion activity, as well as providing a visible presence. Unmarked robbery cars would be deployed to areas of high robbery, staffed by CID and Response Team officers, to respond to calls and gain knowledge on the identity of the robbers. In addition, CID colleagues have set up Burglary and Robbery Investigation Teams (BRIT) to specialise in tackling these offences.

Operation Autumn Nights would be led by Chief Inspector Ed Baildon over the next few weeks, with additional resources being used across the BCU, to focus on ASB which was typical around Halloween, and also to target burglary and robbery hotspots. The NW BCU is extending this to take into account the Diwali festival.

Superintendent Rawlinson expressed his thanks for the close partnership working and to Clair Green, Declan Khan, Peter Clifton, Matt Leng and Tamara Djuretic for their support and constructive meetings over the past few months. This had helped to enforce the rules around social distancing in the Borough. The approach had been largely ‘engage, explain’ and very little enforcement. Each of the three Boroughs in the BCU has a dedicated ‘Covid car’ to deal with calls, and the pandemic remains a challenge.

The Chairman asked about current staffing levels in the BCU. Superintendent Rawlinson responded that the vacancies in the Schools Team had been filled via secondments. The Ward Teams and Safer Neighbourhood Teams are fully staffed. The vacancy rate across all levels in the BCU is currently around 3%. 

The Chairman enquired about the reduction in robberies in Barnet over recent months. Superintendent Rawlinson responded that in Barnet robberies have largely been youth on youth, and the offending pattern had changed with school closures. The Safer Neighbourhood Teams and Covid Response Teams had been redeployed to parks and open spaces which may have helped to reduce the incidence of robberies.

The Chairman asked for an update on the Barnet Police Station. Superintendent Rawlinson responded that this would be considered by the management team as part of the Estates Strategy. He would ensure that the Board is informed as soon as a decision has been made. 

Action: Metropolitan Police

The Chairman enquired about the reduction in sanction and detection rates for domestic abuse in Barnet and whether this could be improved. Superintendent Rawlinson responded that this partly depends on which data were presented and the fact that many reported incidents are non-crime incidents but are still reported to help build up a picture of risk. The police are measured on, and prioritise, arriving promptly at domestic abuse incidents and a positive arrest policy is in place. Domestic abuse remains a focus and there has been no change in its management within the police, so further detail would be needed to ascertain why there had been a reduction.

The Chairman requested a report on ‘designing out crime’ including success stories in Barnet and the team’s work with Barnet Council. Superintendent Rawlinson would request this from the Designing Out Crime Team for the next meeting. 

Action: Metropolitan Police

The Board resolved to note the report.