Agenda item

To review progress against the Southwark Community Safety Partnership Plan, including discussion with the Police Borough Commander, Cabinet Member for Safer, Cleaner Borough, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing and Assistant Director of Community Safety and Partnerships on current crime and disorder related issues impacting on the borough.

Attached as background documents are:

·  Southwark Community Safety Partnership Plan 2017 – 2020

·  Southwark Safeguarding Adult Board Annual Report 2019-2020

Further information reflecting the current position will be circulated ahead of the meeting.

The committee heard from Stephen Douglass, Director of Communities, Colin Wingrove, Police Borough Commander, and Councillor Evelyn Akoto, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing (in relation to her portfolio brief for Violence Against Women and Girls).

It had been expected that the committee would also hear from Councillor Darren Merrill, Cabinet Member for Safer, Cleaner, Borough, he had however submitted apologies due to an illness in his family.  The chair reported that Councillor Merrill had offered to attend a meeting later in the year to speak on the community safety aspect of his portfolio.

Stephen Douglass introduced the officer report which provided progress against the Southwark Community Safety Partnership Plan Activity 2017 -2020 and updates in respect of the following:

·  police recorded crime,

·  tackling youth violence,

·  tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG)

·  tackling anti-social behaviour

·  Reducing reoffending

·  Reducing substance misuse

·  Child Sexual Exploitation

·  Hate crime

·  PREVENT (Prevention of Terrorism

Police Borough Commander Colin Wingrove informed the committee of how the police were prioritising violence against women and girls, with council and other partners and work being developed over the coming months in this area.

Commander Wingrove also touched upon Hate crimes and the partnership approach being undertaken to make sure everyone is safe and free from experiencing crime.  Commander Wingrove also highlighted the prioritisation of the issue of knife crime and its link to robbery, along with steps to address the problem, such as additional patrols, proactive work, making sure that offenders were being identified and taking opportunities to intervene and make arrests where appropriate, and seeking positive outcomes.

Commander Wingrove reported that crime performance was now being measured against pre-covid levels in order to get an understanding of where they were in terms crime post-covid.  Crime reduction had reduced under all categories with the exception of sexual offences which had increased.  Appropriate focus and resource would be given to partnership work, working with community groups, the council’s licensing team and licensed premises as well to keep people safe.

Councillor Evelyn Akoto stressed that tackling the violence against women and girls, had always been a priority for the council and informed the committee that the council has a 5 year VAWG strategy, agreed in 2019 and built upon the previous domestic abuse strategy.  Councillor Akoto informed the committee that Southwark was one of only a few boroughs that had been lobbying for misogyny to be classed as a hate crime.  The council had also being lobbying the Commissioner of Police and Police Borough Commander to focus on VAWG issues and make it a priority for the metropolitan police service.

Work (including training) was also being undertaken with faith communities to identify cases of domestic abuse or VAWG in their congregations.

After the presentations from the Director of Communities, Police Borough Commander and Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing, questions and discussion took place around the following:

·  Challenging misogyny in the police force

·  Lack of data held in relation to hate crime against women

·  Work being undertaken with perpetrators of misogyny and sexual offences

·  The scale of stop and search over the last two years and effective use of police resources in that context

·  Unlicensed music events

·  Concerns over increased knife crimes, post Covid

·  Connection between knife crime and cut in youth service provision

·  Increase in hate crimes related to sexual orientation

·  Anti-social behaviour and cuckooing

·  Proactive policing versus reactive policing

·  Congregating people creating low level anti-social behaviour which at times escalates, and actions to stop this from happening

·  Inclusion of child exploitation as a separate priority (modern slavery, county lines, cuckooing, gangs) to child sexual exploitation

·  Making hate crime a separate priority (separate from PREVENT)

·  Metropolitan police’s commitment to rebuild trust with women, and work being undertaken

·  The diversity of Southwark police officers and how closely they reflect the communities of Southwark

·  Increased reporting of sexual offences

·  Role of schools in educating young men and boys on their conduct and interaction with women

·  Ongoing work around female genital mutilation

·  Increase in hate crime against black people

At the end of questions and discussion, Police Borough Commander Wingrove invited members of the committee to observe the police in a ‘ride along’ / walk and talk’ or to visit one of the investigative teams.  It was agreed that an email from the clerk would be circulated to members of the committee to establish interest and make arrangements as appropriate.

RESOLVED:

That the review and progress made against the Southwark Community Safety Partnership Plan Activity 2017 – 2020 be noted.