Agenda item

To receive the annual update of the Community Safer Partnership along with the future priorities.

The Commission is asked to note the update, and requests that the views expressed during the presentation and any actions are acknowledged and documented by the officers.

The Commission received an update from Chief Inspector Baker and the Community Services Manager on the annual performance report of the Safer Crawley Partnership along with the future priorities.    

            During the discussion, the following points were expressed:

The purpose of the Safer Crawley Partnership was to reduce re-offending, tackle crime and disorder, anti-social behaviour, alcohol and substance misuse and any other behaviour which had a negative effect on the local community so that people in Crawley were safer and felt safer.

Statutory partners included:  WSCC, Sussex Police, West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Probation Service and Crawley Clinical Commissioning Group together with other partners including OSPCC, Crawley Community Action, Crawley Open House, Crawley & Gatwick Business Watch and CGL.

In terms of crime data, total crime data had reduced by 5.6% on the same period last year. Crimes with a domestic abuse marker were up 1.9%, however this could be attributed to better reporting of offences and dedicated campaigns. It was noted that overall burglary data was down 11%, potentially as a result of the lockdown and more people remaining at home.  Crimes with a weapon marker had been increasing, however reporting methods had improved and operations had taken place to target this. Actual possession of weapons had decreased by 13.5% so whilst the threat of using a weapon may have risen, the actual physical possession of the weapon was in decline.

The make-up of the Neighbourhood Policing Team was discussed. The distribution of PCSOs was based on a number of factors: demand, geography and job allocation (job share/part time working etc) and consequently the number of officers assigned to an area was not indicative to the service that area received.  The updated list could be provided within the Councillors’ Information Bulletin. Additionally the Sussex Police website would be updated to list all the PCSOs and this would link to the Sussex Police HR system to automatically take into account of any relocations.

The Commission were updated that following the Government’s ‘Everyone-In’ Initiative, 89 people were accommodated with currently 14 people in temporary accommodation, with other referrals to supported housing projects. 

2019-2020 key achievements included:

·       Serious and Organised Crime (SOC) - a Safer Crawley School event and presentation on the dangers of County drugs lines and the importance of reporting to relevant agencies.  SOC priorities were changed during the year to ensure the work was on behalf of the whole of West Sussex. Crawley and Chichester swapped SOC priorities as Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery was more relevant to the locality.

·       Street Community – Town Centre Task Force established to liaise and jointly work with partners on a regular basis to tackle street homelessness, begging and street drinking.  There had been multiple diverted giving awareness raising events and Greater Change contactless donation terminals were being introduced, but also enforcement powers were used for those that unfortunately were not willing to engage due to the complexity of their needs

·       Protecting Vulnerable Individuals – There was continued awareness raising of domestic abuse and hate crime support services.

2020-2021 work included:

The Partnership Structures and Initiatives:

·       West Sussex Violence Reduction Unit,

·       West Sussex Contextual Safeguarding Steering Group,

·       Domestic and Sexual Violence and Abuse Steering Group,

·       Stalking Champions,

·       Modern Slavery Champions

The Four priorities:

·       Serious and Organised Crime (Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking) whereby the updated Partnership priority setting saw changes to the Crawley & Mid Sussex SOC focused areas move to holding Divisional lead responsibility for Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery across West Sussex

·       Street Community

·       Protecting Vulnerable Individuals

·       Business Crime

Current Challenges:

·       Anti-Social Behaviour – this has been amplified by the current pandemic as localised behaviour was being seen.

·       Car parks – impacts of rough sleepers/street community.

·       Obtaining accurate data continued to be challenging. However new tools were coming online to assist with this.

Future Developments:

·       Access to data analysis via West Sussex Analyst would assist in understanding data and benchmarking across other areas and obtaining a national picture.

·       The Town Centre BID had been successful and a key priority was safety and security, being able to work in partnership on various issues such as crime and anti-social behaviour and work hard to create a safer Town Centre for shoppers, visitors, businesses, their employees and its growing number of residents.

Members then raised a number of queries.  The issues raised and the key responses included:

·       It was noted it would be beneficial to have a representation on the amount of cybercrime occurring within the town.

·       Confirmation that the recent knife amnesty in Queens Square was one of a number that had taken place across West Sussex. However increasingly important was the education sessions in schools. The amnesty campaigns required a willing participant whereas educating early was a more effective approach.

·       SOC resources were confirmed in that a localised approach was in place in addition to those already in place such an international, national crime agency and further agencies.

·       It was noted that last year saw significant issues within the town centre, serious organised crime, county lines, modern day slavery and trafficking and these were multifaceted issues and recognition of the good partnership working being of paramount importance in addressing those issues. This continued to provide considerable achievements in order to deliver the priorities and the challenges.

·       It was anticipated that crime statistics may be able to be reported more frequently and it was hopeful that potentially these would be able to be made publically.

·       Confirmed that further analysis would take place regarding the increase in the street community during the autumn/winter in 2019/2020.

RESOLVED

That the update be noted with the views expressed being acknowledged by officers.  The Commission’s gratitude was relayed to Chief Inspector Baker and officers for their attendance at the Commission.