Issue - meetings

This report fulfils the statutory requirement to scrutinise the work of the Community Safety Partnership (CSP), in 2020-2021.

The Committee received a report fulfilling the statutory requirement to scrutinise the work of the Community Safety Partnership (CSP), in 2020-2021.

The Committee noted a presentation from Inspector Jon Vale.

The following matters were raised by the Committee:

a)            Staffing resources: Members raised concerns regarding the time taken for Police staff to attend crime scenes, particularly regarding robberies. The Borough Inspector noted that during the height of the Pandemic, there had been some issues with resources (whereby Officers were fulfilling other duties such as Council Welfare checks for the vulnerable). This meant that on some occasions, there was only 1 Officer covering the whole Borough. The Borough Inspector noted that lessons had been learnt from these experiences, and that they would work on picking up on earlier signs of where things may not be right.

b)           Communication with local Councillors: Following a question from a Member, the Borough Inspector confirmed that all PCSO’s have been asked to contact Ward Members and provide regular contact, so that any issues or queries may be addressed and resolved in a timely manner.

c)            Resource numbers: Following a question from a Member, the Borough Inspector confirmed that the resourcing numbers noted throughout the presentation is the number of recruited Officers, and no further Officers are due to be recruited (there may only be replacements if staff are lost in any way).

d)           Catalytic convertor theft: Members noted the high number of thefts around catalytic convertors. The Borough Inspector noted the difficulties surrounding this crime, including non-local offenders, and a short offense-time. It was noted that the Police were making partnerships with local garages and working on the free supply of forensic-marking kits to Hybird car owners, as well as raising awareness of the signs of theft in order to tackle this particular type of crime.

Following consideration, it was resolved with 8 Members voting for, 1 abstention and the Chairman not voting that:

(1)      The Committee agreed to note and comment on the work of the CSP.