Agenda item

This report sets out how key crime information for Brent is collected and provides a template for the collection of key statistics to be reported to the committee on a regular basis.  It also provides an in-depth report on Burglary in Brent

Genny Renard Head of Community Safety introduced the report which set out how key crime information for Brent is collected and provides a template for the collection of key statistics to be reported to the committee on a regular basis.  It also provided an in-depth report on Burglary in Brent.  It was explained that the gathering of accurate, relevant data was a difficulty when using police reported crimes as this only showed a reflection of reported crimes, however it was hoped that this would be improved through the data published in the Crime Survey for England and Wales.

The council was currently undertaking the ethical reporting pilot which meant that all crimes that could be a burglary were reported, making crime statistics appear worse than the actual crime rate.  It was noted that some areas had seen a decrease in crime through ethical reporting including Camden and Lambeth although it was assumed that this was due to the increased police presence of being an Olympic borough.  The Head of Community Safety reported that the rise in crime had dropped from a 10% increase to 8.9% with two main categories of burglary being reported; professional burglars from outside of the borough from areas such as Essex and Hertfordshire target affluent areas, and local robberies by youths of the less affluent areas such as Harlseden and Stonebridge.  It was estimated that the value of items taken compared to income meant that the less affluent areas were losing a higher percentage of their income than the affluent areas.  Burglaries had also been broken down into residential and non-residential burglaries.  Additionally, there were concerns that loan sharks were operating in the Harlesden area and work was being undertaken with the Police to address this.  An action plan was in place which included; an intelligence unit which currently had four undercover operations underway, informing landlords of named burglars in their properties and the powers they have under tenancy agreements to evict, strengthening of communal doors in social housing, targeted work on housing estates and crime prevention day breakfasts with registered social landlords. 

The Head of Community Safety reported that a lack of custodial sentencing which undermined police officers although a meeting with the crown prosecution will be taking place to ensure that repeat offenders are picked up and sentenced correctly.  Additionally, the police had agreed that a victim impact statement would be produced for each case as well as work being undertaken into community impact statements.  Work undertaken to address burglaries included; greater communication with residents, encouraging neighbours to hold contact details in case a robbery takes place and monitoring of post boxes to ascertain where gold stolen in disposed of through gold buying websites.

Details of the sanction and detection rates were given with regard to knife and gun crime and it was highlighted that the number of knife crimes appeared high but included possession and the finding of weapons. 

During the discussion that followed, it was clarified that the professional criminals entering the borough tended to use the 29 transport links in Brent and did not commit other crimes as not to attract attention from the Police.  It was felt that Brent was targeted due to the larger Asian community and the tendency to have large quantities of gold and portable items such as jewellery.  The Head of Community Safety reported that an increase in burglaries in Alperton had been reported, including a valuable painting being stolen.  It was felt that the motivation behind burglaries could be the economy, gang initiation and purely because people can.  It was highlighted that the team did not have a project budget and had to obtain external funding to carry out projects within the community.  A supplementary report would be circulated later in the year informed by the Crime Survey for England and Wales. 

RESOLVED:-

that the committee:

i)             note the report and monitor future developments

ii)            agree to develop the targets based on quarter one and two data

iii)           include the report on the next Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) on its work programme