Agenda item
The Annual Community Safety Review
Minutes:
The Chair advised Members that the Panel was considering this item seating as a Crime and Disorder Committee. The Chair invited Mr James Hose to speak under public speaking provisions. Mr Hose made the following comments:
- There some concerns that communication and community engage with then police was not as effective as it could be;
- Community events were now conducted through online meetings. This had affected the number of individuals that could take part in these events;
- Anti-social behaviour issues should be addressed by all agencies and the communities should be consulted on these issues as they were the ones on the ground and would be the first to know about any such incidents;
- The Police should be more visible in communities.
Penny Button, Head of Neighbourhoods explained that the Thanet Community Safety Partnership was a multi-agency which had an Executive Committee partnership that was Chaired by CI Swallow.
The Chair then invited Chief Inspector Ian Swallow, Kent Police to make his presentation. In his presentation, Chief Inspector Swallow made the following points:
- A number of conversations had been conducted with Mr Hose. Kent Police were in compliance with their statutory obligations that included holding quarterly community engagement events per each ward;
- There was higher level of engagement in busier wards;
- Most of the councillors were aware of who their respective ward police officers were;
- The strategic assessment review report being presented to the Panel was focusing on the key priorities for the Partnership;
- Serious crime stats reflected that there had been a decrease in the division from 456 in 2022/23 to 423 in 2023/24. The division included Dover, Canterbury, Ashford, Folkestone and Thanet;
- Thanet was a very vulnerable district in terms of crime and disorder;
- There had been a drop of 10% in violent crimes against a person, with Thanet contributing to 26% for the division. Margate Central and Cliftonville West contributed the highest cases for the district;
- 622 sexual offences had been report in the 12 Kent districts with a 7% reduction in Thanet;
- Margate Central, had the highest cases followed by Eastcliff ward and Cliftonville West;
- Thanet had an increase of 10% in possession of weapons offences;
- Drugs and county lines offences had increased in the District by 9.9% overall, with 30% being drug offences;
- Safeguarding cases had increased by 468 in 2023. However, Thanet was no longer the district with the highest number of referrals;
- Thanet had the second highest number of child safeguarding cases behind Swale with a 13% increase to 2454 cases in 2022/23;
- There had been an 8.5% reduction in offending and reoffending cases. Thanet had higher number of cases reported than three other districts;
- Re-offending was higher than the national average;
- There had been a 13% reduction in violence against women and girls. Thanet had the highest number;
- Thanet had the highest number of domestic abuse cases but had experienced a 14% reduction;
- The district had 269 looked after children reported cases in the period under review;
- Mental health clients increased to 273 in 2022/23 Margate Central and Cliftonville West had the highest cases;
- The number of safeguarding cases had reduced in 2022/23. Alcohol and substance misuse increased post covid period but was beginning to level out;
- Thanet had a higher than national average of rough sleeping cases. However, the number had decreased.
- 248 modern slavery cases had been reported in 2023/24
- Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) had significantly decreased by 36% in 2021/22 and 10% in 2022/23;
- Summer months usually witness a spike in ASB;
- Community Reassurance: meetings were held quarterly in each of the four main towns and the villages;
- The Partnership had conducted an annual residents’ consultation resulting in 89% indicating that they felt safe during day time and 55% saying that they felt safe during night time.
- Thanet featured as having high crime rates in comparison to other districts in the Eastern Division in Kent. This was impressive work by the Partnership;
- The key priorities for 2022-26 included reducing serious violence, safer people, safer places and safer people;
- Safer People: The Partnership working with younger people to tackle barriers;
- Safer Places: The Partnership was tackling ASB, improving housing for rough sleepers;
- Every single ward had its own contactable beach officer. This would improve engagement with the public.
The full details of the presentation were contained in the slides attached as an annex to this minute item.
Panel members made comments and asked questions as follows:
- The Panel congratulated the Partnership for good work done in the period under review;
- The presence of warranted officers had played a big role in crime reduction and this was a good news story;
- In order to improve safety in local streets, KCC should increase street lighting;
- Breaking into houses and cars was what the public mostly saw and reported and they felt that no action was taken to tackle that crime;
- There was a need to find a way assuring the public that something was being done to tackle crime;
- Community engagement should be more effective;
- Whilst the stats were improving it was still a worrying report;
- Information about community engagement meetings was not going out in a clear and simple way;
- Central Harbour ward had a problem of street drinkers. However, the community was not seeing any action being taken to tackle to problem as no prosecution, whilst still seeing the same individuals continuing to offend;
- One councillor said that they were not seen any evidence of police engaging with the community regarding the operation of late licences;
- How was the Partnership working with Health regarding mental health and drug related cases?
- Would the number of beat officers be increased over the years and would they be conversant with the local PSPOs?
- Was the Chief Inspector satisfied with the number of officers in his staff complement and the current PSPOs be implemented with the current number of officers on the ground?
- Were the Police enforcing the conditions of the premise licences as the incident took place and was the Council enforcing the conditions after the incidents?
- There was a need to make more information available to the public about licences that would have been issued;
- There should be more enforcement of conditions particularly for drinking outside the premises;
- Graffiti was blighting some of the local areas. However, this was missing from the crime stats;
- Was the Partnership going to build on the work to promote women safety?
- This would include putting in place a condition that licensed premises to sign up that they will put a sign about women safety on their premises;
- It was important to share widely this information on women safety and this could include conducting school visits;
- Had programmes on supporting reducing reoffending been successful?
- If mental health service was underfunded what could be done by the Partnership to mitigate this situation?
- Ramsgate Town Council used to provide office space to an organisation that provided a service for advice to women on domestic violence. Which part of the Partnership should provide advice to women on reducing violence against women and girls?
CI Swallow responded to the Panel comments and questions as follows:
- Street drinkers were a significant problem in Ramsgate. Common protection notices had been issued to offending individuals. Once the=n individual breached the notice, prosecution would follow. They were therefore being monitored;
- It was important to note that when premises kicked out badly behaved individuals from their premises, these individuals would then go into the streets. At this point it would no longer be an issue for the licensed premises to deal with. It was therefore not the premises’ fault for doing their work by ejecting disorderly customers;
- Health was part of the Partnership. Health Alliance was set up by Health. This organisation should be brought into the Partnership;
- A full establishment of beat officers would be twenty-four officers for Thanet wards. Currently there were fifteen (with fourteen on the beat);
- It was hoped that there would be a full establishment as at the end of 2024;
- The Partnership ran a Summer Programme that drew on county resources. This year the programme would commence in June;
- The Partnership would be working with the Enforcement team. Once embedded very officer would be familiar with the local PSPOs;
- The perception of crime was nearly as big an issue as the actual crime itself. It was therefore important to tackle it and create more positive perception;
- The precept for neighbourhood policing was done by the Police and Crime Commissioner;
- There should be more enforcement of licensed premises;
- Accreditation Schemes for licensed premises: In Ramsgate twenty-four premises signed up to the voluntary scheme. This scheme was for how businesses should look after their premises. The Partnership won an award for this initiative;
- Graffiti was an issue which required further discussion by the Partnership;
- The Community Safety team was doing great work with programmes like My Night Out and Community Shield;
- The Partnership would consider schemes like My Community Voice that were run by other local areas. This was a method for beat officers to speak to the community;
- There were some new approaches coming on board regarding reducing re-offending;
- Training was vital to help mitigate some of the resource limitations faced by part agencies that included Health. Currently there was a Right Care Right Person that was brought in by other Police Forces across the country and the Quality Care Commission;
- Kent Police and other Kent agencies had signed up on this programme. This was a multi-agency approach which had worked successfully across the country. The programme focused mostly on young people;
- Advisory sessions that were conducted at Ramsgate Town Council premises were also attended by Kent Police. The charity organisation that held those sessions was part of the Partnership and attended partnership meetings.
The Chair thanked CI Swallow and Penny Button and the Panel noted the presentation.
Supporting documents:
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Crime & Disorder OSP Report - Google Docs, item 15.
PDF 313 KB
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Community Safety partnership Plan (4), item 15.
PDF 11 MB
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Strategic Assessment 2023-2024 Presentation.pptx, item 15.
PDF 7 MB