Agenda for Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday, 9th January, 2019, 2.00 pm

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Ground Floor Committee Room - Loxley House, Station Street, Nottingham, NG2 3NG

Contact: Laura Wilson  Senior Governance Officer

Items
No. Item

45.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Councillor Sue Johnson – other council business

Councillor Gul Khan – personal reasons

46.

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

None.

47.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 234 KB

To agree the minutes of the meeting held 5 December 2018

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 5 December 2018 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

48.

Policing in Nottingham pdf icon PDF 11 KB

Report of the Head of Legal and Governance

Minutes:

Superintendent Andrea Baxter and Chief Inspector Simon Allardice, Nottinghamshire Police, delivered a presentation highlighting the following:

 

(a)  policing in the city has returned to a geographic model from a thematic model, and now has a City Area Commander along with three localised Chief Inspectors, a Detective Chief Inspector, Response and Neighbourhood Policing Teams and a Burglary Team;

(b)  Nottinghamshire Police’s ongoing review of its Neighbourhood Policing aims to develop a foundation from which to build a stable and resilient offer. It has joint strategic overview from both Area Commanders for the city and county;

(c)  the three main thematic areas of focus  for Neighbourhood Policing are Engaging Communities, Developing Staff and Volunteers and Building Analytical Capacity Targeting Activity and Solving Problems. These are each led by a different Chief Inspector;

(d)  a number of proactive operations are taking place across the city to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour, working in partnership with other agencies:

·  Operation Guardian is a city centre operation specifically aimed at targeting the use or dealing of illegal drugs in the night-time economy by using a passive drugs dog to identify suspects;

·  Operation Scorpion aims to reduce knife crime, working closely with all partners. Nottingham has the only dedicated Knife Crime Team in the UK outside of the Metropolitan Police;

·  Operation Reacher is a proactive policing unit working with the local neighbourhood team in City North, particularly Bestwood, to tackle organised crime;

·  Operation Taste is a proactive operation to reduce tensions between St Anns and Radford in response to a spate of shooting incidents over the summer;

·  Operation Relentless is a city centre operation to tackle drug dealing, anti-social behaviour (ASB) and vehicle crime in the city centre during the day;

 

(e)  an Arboretum Working Group was set up as the Arboretum was identified as a long-standing area of concentrated complexity with high levels of crime relative to its population. The partnership-working group has priorities of Burglary Dwelling, Public Space Crime and ASB and Organised Crime. It meets monthly with the aim to develop partnership problem-solving plans, and a partnership approach to engagement;

(f)  similar working groups are planned for Bulwell and the city centre;

(g)  a dedicated burglary team was introduced in June 2018 which investigated distraction-type burglaries, burglaries where vehicles are targeted and stolen, burglaries where family gold is targeted and stolen, and burglary in hot spot areas. The team is based in the St Anns and Radford areas and has led to improved outcomes for burglary offences in the city.

 

The following points were raised during the discussion which followed:

(h)  the original decision to move from a geographic to a thematic model was made due to funding cuts and lack of officers.  Funding has now improved and the number of officers has increased by around 200;

(i)  working groups have been proposed for Bulwell and the City Centre as these were identified as hotspots for high-harm offences. The groups will work with a range of partners to tackle area-specific offences such as shop theft, begging or street drinking. Further groups may be introduced in other areas if these prove successful;

(j)  the Command Team meets on a weekly basis to discuss trends and concerns, including displacement of crime from one area to another. Resources can be quickly deployed where needed in the new model to mitigate this;

(k)  crime figures in the city still continue to rise, though this is partly due to the recording of additional crime as instructed by the government. Other crime increases may be due to societal issues such as drugs and low incomes due to the government’s austerity measures. Burglary levels have improved following partnership work and the introduction of the Burglary Team;

(l)  police satisfaction figures in the city remain high. Anyone reporting a crime who is identified as vulnerable will be visited straight away, but other reports which may have warranted a visit in the past may be dealt with over the phone or by Community Protection;

(m)reductions in funding for services such as mental health, child sexual exploitation and missing children cause additional pressure for police services.

 

RESOLVED to thank Superintendent Baxter and Chief Inspector Allardice for the information provided.

49.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 111 KB

Report of the Head of Legal and Governance

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED to note the Committee’s work programme for the remainder of the municipal year.