To receive a presentation and interview Chief Supt. Colin Wingrove, Borough Police Commander for Southwark on ‘Trust and visibility of policing in the community’. (Presentation to follow)
Minutes:
The commission noted that Chief Supt. Colin Wingrove, Borough Police Commander for Southwark would be leaving this role after 3 years in the job and will be succeeded by Chief Supt. Adjei Addoh. The commission then heard from the Borough Police Commander on the following points:
· Plans under new commissioner for London Met undergoing consultation with the objectives of creating more trust, less crime, raising policing standards and culture change in the Met
· Focus is on Policing within the community and Neighbourhood policing with sign off from Mayor of London for an additional 500 PCSO’s, dedicated ward officers and partnership working arrangements.
· Additionally there would one neighbourhood policing Superintendent per London Borough supported by a Chief Inspector.
· Prioritising VAWG- commitment to strengthen community Safety, Operation Vigilance in hotspots and support to survivors provided by Refuge that are measured in KPIs
· Improving practices by police officers, better interviews of victims and use of body cameras, Domestic Abuse Prevention Orders
· Increase in criminal charges per trace for DA gone up from 7% in 2022 to 15% in 2023; best performance levels in London on sanctions detection outcomes by working with Crown Prosecution Services (CPS) from 2.3 % to 10 %
· Organising and appointing LGBT engagement officers in an effort to curb hate crime in LGBTQ community
The commission then asked questions on the following points:
· Concerns on whether the scale of unrecorded less serious misogynistic cases are not being assessed because it’s not considered a hate crime as compared to a protected characteristics
· Absence of a dedicated liaison officer for VAWG
· Cultures and failings in the Met police with regards to the murder of Sarah Everard and other high profile cases, changes being made within the Met to build trust and successes
Chief Supt. Wingrove agreed with the commission that the environment we live in, should not tolerate individuals exhibiting misogynistic, sexist and racist behaviour; public attitude surveys are an important method of getting such data to gauge trust in policing in different areas and splitting that data among gender, race, sex and age. The Met police is committed in striving to improve women’s safety through walking talks conducted by neighbourhood officers and feeding this data back into partnership conversations; this would eventually help tackle male perpetrators of violence against women and girls.
Chief Supt. Wingrove explained to commission that a lot of work is being done in the area of VAWG, sign-posting, outreach, partnerships stalls at London Bridge stations, campaigns by London Met around DA and also public protections services such as Gaia, Solace and Refuge. There may be some benefits to having a dedicated VAWG Liaison officer but it needs a bit more thought in terms of added value it could bring, however the current structure in place to provide support in VAWG has; a senior lead, a proper action plan, the working groups aligned to community safety and officers working with partners doing a range of activities.
On culture issues and failings in the Met Police, Chief Supt. Wingrove informed the commission that the Met Police commissioner has discussed setting out ways in which such police officers can be rooted out of the service and also preventing such individuals from joining the Met by addressing structural issues and having processes in place. The commissioner has also talked about investing more in setting up the new Corruption and Abuse commands, giving the public the ability to report corruption and also officers with integrity identifying, challenging and reporting such misconduct. Leaders in the Met police are responsible for setting the tone by speaking to their officers and creating an environment where such instances can be reported and also ensuring action would be taken. Some areas of concern are around the wider social media culture and involves working with external organisations to identify those individuals.
Then commission then asked further questions around the following themes:
· Reporting of Missing Girls, Violence against Persons and Child exploitation and measures taken to tackle such crimes.
· Use of victim support police user satisfaction surveys
· Nature of misogyny in society and racism; structural and cultural elements of the Met police that cause resistance to quality control of officers brought into the Met
· Strengthening Ward Panels
Chief Supt. Wingrove explained to the commission that hundreds of missing person cases are recorded every month with the help of a dedicated team and are classified into low, medium and high risk based on risk factors, for e.g. a young person would be medium to high risk. The team would then carry out investigations, this also involves working with the council to better our understanding of exploitation of young people with regards to drug dealing, human trafficking, unconscious bias, cultural factors, county lines, gang violence and violent crimes. These investigations would then be fed into a multiagency approach with partner organisations.
On approaches to tackling such crimes, this involves equal treatment for young black girls and young white girls, ensuring that there is no bias and there is an appropriate response, this is done through training, supervision and leadership and also working with various partners and organisations. The Met also has ride along schemes where the public can come along and chat to officers in the missing persons unit to learn how the process is carried out, also provide the Met Police feedback at the end of the session.
Chief Supt. Wingrove informed the commission that 65% of victims of various crimes have fed back that they have received a good or excellent service by officers in Southwark and this looks at a range of crime types such as violent crime, DA, robbery, burglary, vehicle crime and this is also compared across BAME communities to identify differences in service areas. Victim cases that have been let down by policing are identified in the monthly performance meetings and are used to discuss and implement improvements in these areas.
Chief Supt Wingrove explained to the commission that majority of officers are good, hard working officers with a lot of integrity and courage. There are a small numbers who have committed crimes or have responded inappropriately or made sexist or racist comments, some examples of officers from Southwark and Lambeth do exist and investigations of misconduct have been carried out.
Chief Supt. Wingrove recommended to the commission that location based problem solving could play a major role in resolving issue of drug dealing and ASB, especially in areas of regeneration in the borough, this could be achieved by working with the council and partnership organisations. Looking at demands of policing in a local area would also help in having those conversations with the council to help deliver some of those local needs in constructive way especially through the Southwark 2030 event.
Chief Supt. Wingrove agreed with the commission that the input from ward Panel is invaluable especially in terms of local knowledge that is not available on police or council databases. Furthermore, ward panel meetings with safer neighbourhood teams and other partner organisations are hugely beneficial to community safety.