Agenda item - Police Update

Agenda item

Police Update

Verbal update from Nottinghamshire Police

Minutes:

Inspector Robert Wilson and Inspector Andy Townsend of Nottinghamshire Police introduced a verbal report updating the Committee on the work of Nottinghamshire Police Wards. They highlighted the following points:

 

(a)  In Dunkirk and Lenton and Radford and Park wards there has been a reduction in domestic burglary rates. In Dunkirk and Lenton there have been 20 fewer offences, and in Radford and Park there has been 10 fewer offences. There has been an increase in shed and garage break ins;

 

(b)  across the force there has been an increase in crime rate. This is because following a national audit incidents are being recorded robustly, in line with government crime recording rules. What was previously considered a minor incident has to be recorded as a crime and given a crime number pushing up over all crime recorded;

 

(c)  this change has particularly affected the numbers of public order offences and violent crime with no, or very minor, injury. In Dunkirk and Lenton and Radford and Park these offences have seen an increase of 13% and 11.9%, this is not out of line with increases seen across the force and should not be seen as an increase in crime rates, it is a reflection of the robust crime recording work taking place;

 

(d)  in Radford and Lenton 7 fewer incidents of Anti-social behaviour were recorded, and in Radford and Park 39 fewer crimes were reported.

 

(e)  in Arboretum Ward there were 107 fewer antisocial behaviour offences recorded. Robbery is also down and there were 29 fewer Burglary offences reported; Violence and public order offences were up by 40 and 50 respectively, although this is in line with the increase seen across the force;

 

(f)  In January alone 22 vehicles were targeted and vehicle theft across Arboretum ward is up. Criminal Damage also saw an increase of 9 offences and violence without injury was up by 27 offences; 

 

Following questions and comments from the committee the following further points were highlighted:

 

(g)  the overall downward trend in most offence types is encouraging. There have been increased patrols targeted at offence hotspots, arrests have been made even when witnesses have not been willing to give statements or pursue complaints;

 

(h)   residents in the wards have raised concerns that despite numerous calls to the 101 number not all crime is being reported and not all calls to this number are being logged. Residents do not feel that the crime maps are reflective of the incidents reported to the police;

 

(i)  if a call comes through to Nottinghamshire Police the information in the call is assessed. If there a crime is in progress the call is given a high priority. All other calls are considered on their individual circumstances, and although not all callers will be called back or fed back to, all calls where a crime is or has been committed are recorded. There is a robust audit team who work in the background to ensure that all crimes are recorded and also the local supervisors carry out assessment and do checks to ensure quality. The police welcome feedback and if there are any specific incidents that residents feel have not been treated correctly when reported through the 101 number then they will be looked at by the audit team and local supervisors;

 

(j)  the crime figures fed back to the Committee will not include the recent focused work on street drinking which is why the Anti-social behaviour figures remain low.

 

RESOLVED to thank Inspectors Robert Wilson and Andy Townsend for their update to the Committee on the work of Nottinghamshire Police within the Wards and to note the content.