Agenda item

The purpose of this report is to present to the scrutiny committee the Safer Brent Partnership – Annual Report 2020/21.  The report also provides a summary of the key issues and an update on the delivery of the Safer Brent Partnership (SBP) priorities and objectives for 2020-21.

Carolyn Downs (Chief Executive, Brent Council) introduced the report as Chair of the Safer Brent Partnership. She advised that the year ending 2021 was the first time Brent had become an average crime borough, having previously been in the top 3 boroughs for crime, which was very positive. There were still areas of concern, including anti-social behaviour and gang related offending. Both were a priority of the partnership. In relation to anti-social behaviour, the increase was a reflection of the way issues relating to Covid-19 were reported, such as lack of social distancing and hanging out in parks. In relation to gang related offending, there had been some serious violent gang related offenses in the borough during the reporting year, but throughout the summer there had been a 12% decrease in gang related incidents. This decrease was despite predictions that the reopening of society would mean an increase in gang tensions. Councillor Promise Knight (Lead Member for Community Safety and Engagement) and Supt Tania Martin (Met Police) also highlighted the reduction in gang related offending. For the coming year, the partnership would focus on violence against women and girls (VAWG), violent crime including youth related violent crime, and anti-social behaviour.

The Committee was then invited to raise questions on the update provided, which focussed on a number of key areas as highlighted below:

·                The Committee noted that Brondesbury Park had a low crime rate compared to its neighbouring wards, querying whether there was a correlation between affluence and lower crime rates. Colin Wilderspin (Head of Community Protection, Brent Council) agreed to provide the Committee with a breakdown of crime and the type of crime in each ward. He advised that with regard to locality of crimes there was connectivity to high footfall areas such as football in Wembley, making it difficult to confirm the correlation behind crime rates in certain geographical areas.

·                The Committee asked about stop and search statistics and the percentages of stop and searches across ethnicities. Officers advised that the most recent meeting of the Safer Brent Partnership had received a report on stop and search disproportionality and had drilled down on that topic. Tania Martin advised that the Basic Command Unit (BCU) monitored stop and search extremely closely. The amount of stop and searches conducted had decreased but the number of fines had remained the same, meaning, as a percentage, more stop and searches were effective. In terms of the monitoring of disproportionality, the Met Police were subject to a significant amount of scrutiny and used Community Monitoring Reference Groups to look at disproportionality and the use of force. The groups were able to sample videos of body worn footage to see how a stop and search interaction had played out and provide direct feedback to officers and supervisors. It was agreed further information on stop and search could be provided to the Committee.

·                The Committee were advised that CCTV did not prevent crime but made people feel safer, helped to detect crime occurring, and was often used as evidence during trials. The technology used in Brent provided a very clear picture which made it easier for police to identify suspects and continue their investigation.

·                It was highlighted that there had been a decrease in the number of reports of domestic violence with injury, and the Committee queried whether this was due to the implementation of Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVAs) and early intervention. Officers advised that the IDVA service was currently provided through Advance and there had been a large awareness raising piece across Brent and nationally during lockdown with regard to domestic abuse. In Brent, the Council tackled domestic abuse through support to the victims, and also through a programme working directly with perpetrators around behaviour change. The early intervention service had continued and received additional grant funding, and its impact was reflected in the reduced reporting of those incidents. The approach had helped with early identification of domestic abuse, allowing safeguards to be put in place.

·                In relation to the take up of the IRIS offer for GPs, the take up from GPs since the publication of the report had since been improved and was now at 65%. The Violence Against Women and Girls Forum had a range of partners that had worked hard with the IRIS offer to get it into GPs. In addition, the uptake of training around domestic abuse had dramatically increased in the last 6-8 months.

·                Carolyn Downs advised that the Safer Brent Partnership had not prioritised ‘inquisitive crime’ despite a push to do so from MOPAC. The focus for the partnership was on issues of violence against women and girls and serious violent crime amongst young people.

·                The Committee noted that the report indicated a high proportion of gang members were Black and asked whether any resource from the Black Community Action Plan would be directed to supporting people away from gang related activity. They were advised that there was already significant resource within the Community Safety Team, Youth Offending Service and Children and Young People’s department, targeted towards gang affiliated young people. Brent had a gang worker and the Young Brent Foundation had received a significant grant from the violence reduction unit at City Hall to work with young black men. Work around the impact of gangs on girls where they had been groomed had also received funding. Specifically in relation to resource from the Black Community Action Plan, the Committee heard that community safety issues and gang crime had not been identified for investment during the first year but work would soon begin to develop priorities for year 2 of the delivery plan, with suggestions welcome.

·                Committee members noted that the figures of Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) were going up and asked what the Council were doing to bring that down. Officers advised the increase was a reflection of the fact partners were getting better at spotting the signs of CSE, allowing the Council to support more victims. Officers were happy to return with colleagues from Children and Young People to explain the figures in more detail. In relation to the police response to CSE, Tania Martin highlighted that all officers were trained to spot the signs of CSE and to look at the wider context of any incident they responded to. The Data Quality Board in Brent looked at themes around CSE on a monthly basis, reviewing processes and quality and sampling types of work done in the past.

·                In considering Brent’s response to CSE, the Committee queried what conversations or partnership work happened between the police, TfL and the Council regarding taxi licensing. Officers present agreed to take this away and ensure those conversations were happening.

·                Regarding the boundary changes for the following year, Tania Martin the Met Police were prepared. The police had put considerable resource into Church End for the following few months, which had been selected by the Met to have a Town Centre Team and extra PWO resourcing. She advised that the BCU was not necessarily dissected into specific components and whilst officers worked at ward level they also liked to look at the totality of an area and consider crime within an area as a whole. She added that the crime profile in Brent was not changing with the changing ward boundaries and there were systems and processes that worked and were already in place.

It was RESOLVED:

(1)     That the following areas for improvement be noted:

             (i).          For the police, TfL and Council to be in regular dialogue in relation to taxi licensing.

(2)     The Committee made the following information requests:

             (i).             To provide details of crime and its correlation to wealth in the borough

            (ii).             To provide details of stop and search statistics broken down by ethnicity

           (iii).             To provide details about CSE across the borough, including details of training for police and the frequency of the training.