The scrutiny committee to receive a presentation of the Community Safety Manager.

The scrutiny committee received a presentation of the Community Safety Manager.  The presentation was attached to the agenda.

During his presentation, the Community Safety Manager highlighted the following areas to members:

·                    The impact of the pandemic had meant a downturn in antisocial behaviour (ASB) and crime, which had not been true in all council areas. The town centre was the driver for crime and closures of premises meant that ASB was down 30% and crime was down 26%.

·                    The rationale for the strategic priorities chosen:

o   Serious youth crime, although incidents were rare they had a high impact.

o   Meet any community tensions, some challenges had been encountered with at the introduction of Covid restrictions but this profile soon faded.

o   Promoting the Echo system, to understand the community’s feelings around the safety of their area.

o   Reassure and inform, to ensure the public are aware of community safety work. 

·                    Emerging priority areas were also kept under review including theft of Beryl Bikes, misuse of e-scooters, drug dealing, issues with the rough sleeper cohort and maintaining focus on violent crime as the economy reopened.

·                    Crime profiles changed due to the Covid restrictions so theft from shops decreased but thefts from vehicles increased and there was a fall in burglaries.

·                    Domestic abuse was always an area to monitor. There were more intergenerational issues and between siblings. The anticipated increase due to damaged relationships was not seen.

·                    There had been ten incidences of community triggers, where an investigation was made into issues which have had more than three complaints in six months to consider how the partnership responded.  Councillors were encouraged to make use of this where appropriate.

·                    Emerging risks included the focus on violence against women and girls and the associated feelings of threat. Safe zones had been established in venues. No evidence of issues with spiking of drinks were found locally.

·                    ASB was up 2% but was still 28% lower than 2019 and crime overall remained 16% down on 2019. There had been a huge drop since 2012.

·                    The partnership remained very strong with a range of partners taking active roles. The chair of the Community Protection Group was held by Watford Community Housing who were actively handling complaints from tenants and operating a prevention first model.

·                    The Strategic Assessment had demonstrated that there was no profile for high crime types in Watford and a few for medium-level crimes. With the town centre closed Watford fell from being the top crime profile in the county to the fourth. It was anticipated that there would be a natural increase in figures to 2019 levels.

·                    The 2022 plan had not yet been confirmed but a number of existing priorities would remain including serious youth violence, violence against women and girls due to the perception of threat, thefts from vehicles remained important as did the priority to reassure and inform. The focus would be adapted should there be a serious incident or a spate of similar crimes.

Following the presentation, the meeting discussed a number of additional issues:

·                    Reassure and inform days would be led by councillors and could include environmental health and the fire service.

·                    Significant work had been undertaken to ensure that the Police and Crime Commissioner’s precept reflected the levels of demand for policing in Watford. It was important that resourcing matched the crime profile and this had been agreed. It was not yet clear what this would mean in real terms.

·                    There was likely to be some police officers who were new to Watford and there was an opportunity to equip them with local knowledge. It was suggested that some virtual meetings could be set up to orientate them and to work with the new chief inspector to reinvigorate a forum.

·                    Crime levels should be benchmarked against 2019 and this had been written into the preface of the CSP plan. A rise in crime compared to 2020/21 was inevitable and the messaging needed to reflect this. This was particularly the case for theft from shops and sexual assault with the reopening of the economy. The crime rate had been rising by about 2% per month which would see a return to 2019 levels by Christmas.

·                    Data from the Echo system was broken down by ward and the top three priorities identified for each one.

·                    The CSP’s data did not include information from the British Transport Police about incidents in the area.

·                     The CCTV in the borough was currently under review, if a request for CCTV was matched by a crime profile the need could be evaluated. A mobile CCTV pilot was also beginning and could be useful for ASB issues.

·                    For areas experiencing lower levels of nuisance, such as parking, this would be highlighted in the Echo data and addressed. Resources were limited at times, however.

·                    Police numbers appeared to be steady since 2019, despite some abstractions for national events.

·                    There had been concerns about the removal of dedicated ASB officers at WCH but the gap had been met and partnership working remained strong.

·                    The Reassure and Inform priority aimed to re-establish the importance of reporting incidents.

·                    Members requested more explanations of acronyms, graphs and comparisons with other local areas for future community safety items.

RESOLVED –

that Overview and Scrutiny Committee notes the update on the summary of 2021 and the proposed plan for 2022.