Agenda item
Safer Brent Partnership Annual Report and Update on Community Safety
The Safer Brent Partnership is the statutory community safety partnership under s5 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. It confers a legal responsibility on a range of relevant agencies to consider the impact on crime and disorder of everything that they do, and to jointly create a strategy to reduce crime, disorder, substance misuse and reoffending in Brent. The Safer Brent Partnership Annual Report is attached for Members’ consideration, along with a community safety update relating to Hate Crime, Domestic Abuse, Crime and the Fear of Crime.
Minutes:
The committee had before them the Annual Report for 2016-2017 of the Safer Brent Partnership, a statutory community safety partnership established in accordance with the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. The report detailed the activities of the Partnership undertaken in support of the jointly created Safer Brent Partnership Strategy aimed at reducing crime, disorder, substance misuse and reoffending in Brent. The Partnership comprised the London Borough of Brent, Metropolitan Police, London Fire Brigade, National Probation Service, Community Rehabilitation Company and NHS Brent Clinical Commission Group. The committee also received an update report on community safety from the Strategic Director of Regeneration and Environment which provided details of Hate Crime, Domestic Abuse and Crime and the Fear of Crime in Brent.
The Chair welcomed to the meeting Michael Gallagher (Borough Commander, Metropolitan Police), Councillor Miller (Lead Member for Stronger Communities), Karina Wane (Head of Community Protection) and Amar Dave (Strategic Director of Regeneration and Environment). Members were informed that Karina Wane was attending in place of Carolyn Downs (Chief Executive of Brent Council) who due to an error had not been invited to attend the meeting.
In the ensuing discussion the committee questioned the work being undertaken to combat anti-Semitism and raised concerns regarding incidents of intimidating behaviour associated with religious sectarianism in Brent’s Islamic communities. Referring to the statistics provided regarding hate crime in Brent, members sought further detail regarding the groups affected and questioned why there had been an increase in hate crime related to religion. Members queried the procedure for information sharing with local councillors following the occurrence of a major crime in their wards. In view of the rising figures associated with anti-social behaviour and gang activity in Brent, the committee requested an overview of the work being undertaken to tackle such issues, including drug dealing and prostitution, and highlighted a number of hotspots of illegal activity in the borough. Members questioned what initiatives were pursued with the borough’s schools, particularly around issues of domestic violence and violence against women and girls.
In response, Councillor Miller explained that hate crime statistics were closely monitored, emphasised the importance of education in tackling this type of crime and outlined the Council’s work with the Brent Interfaith Forum. The Borough Commander also praised the work of the Brent Interfaith Forum and highlighted the importance of monitoring data regarding the fear of crime, as it was recognised that this too had a significant impact on quality of life. The local police response to anti-Semitism included increased patrols on High Holy Days. A strong working relationship was also maintained with the Community Safety Trust, a charity which aimed to protect the Jewish Community from anti-Semitism and other threats. Different communities had different needs and the Borough Commander had visited and addressed worshipers at each of the mosques in Brent around a variety of issues, including concerns relating to the public mood around Britain’s exit from the European Union. Whilst it was acknowledged that tensions could exist between different Islamic groups, broadly, community cohesion in Brent was considered to be very good. Karina Wane informed members of a community multi agency forum which had been established to help support victims of hate crime in the community.
The Borough Commander outlined the partnership mechanism for sharing information following a serious crime and explained that the Chief Executive and Lead Member for Stronger Communities would always be notified. Wider information sharing was subject to the need to protect on-going investigations and would be at the discretion of the senior investigating officer. Councillor Miller added that as much information as possible would be shared with ward councillors.
The Borough Commander advised that research had been commissioned with the University College London to explore the reasons for the level of knife crime in London. The early results of this indicated that increasing urbanisation was a key factor. London was a growing city and was experiencing an upsurge in its young population; a trend reflected in Brent’s population. As the perpetrators and victims of knife crime were largely under the age of twenty-five, a correlation could be drawn between a larger young population and a higher level of knife crime. The Borough Commander commended the good working relationship that had been developed with Brent’s communities most affected by knife crime, such as Harlesden and praised the input of the MP for the area and schools, particularly Newman Catholic College. Karina Wane espoused the value of information sharing with partner agencies and advised that suspects of knife crime would be offered the same interventions as victims as there was often cross over between the two. Brent was currently developing a predictive modelling matrix to support preventative work with those most at risk of being exploited or engaging in crime and was the first authority in the country to do so. A Stronger Communities Strategy was being developed in collaboration with Brent’s communities, with community activity at its centre.
Councillor Miller acknowledged that there had been a slight increase in the level of violent crime but explained that this was not necessarily gang related and included traffic and alcohol related incidents. There was therefore many different aspects to addressing this trend including place-based licensing and police controls to tackle hotspots of criminal activity and close collaborative working across the Safer Brent Partnership. The Borough Commander emphasised the importance of working with a community to support intelligence led enforcement of issues such as drug dealing. Members heard that officers were working closely with women working as prostitutes to assist them out of the work. Whilst prostitution did pose a public nuisance and public health issue, the real challenges related to human trafficking, welfare and safeguarding issues. Karina Wane added that the council had a service to help people exit sex working which had been in operation for the last four years and had been commissioned for a further two years. In the last twelve months it had supported thirty-nine people, leading to approximately twenty-six people ceasing the work.
Councillor Miller outlined work relating to violence against women and girls, including such issues as domestic violence, sexual violence, stalking, female genital mutilation and honour based violence. This work focused on prevention, protection and prosecution and key aspects of this included raising public awareness and seeking to change behaviour. Councillor Miller detailed a project working with perpetrators of domestic violence to tackle offender behaviour. Outreach work was undertaken with community partners such as GPs but this could be further extended into schools. Karina Wane added that a range of education projects had been previously supported for priority schools focusing on domestic violence and agreed that it would be beneficial to undertake additional outreach work with schools.
RESOLVED:
i) That Cabinet be recommended to support increased outreach work with the borough’s schools as part of the existing Anti-Domestic Violence Strategy, in order to take a preventative approach to potential future offending and assist in the early identification of pupils experiencing issues of domestic violence at home;
ii) That an update report regarding i) be provided to the committee at a future meeting.
Supporting documents: