Sustainability of safer streets

Report: 12
Date: 22 July 2002
By: Commissioner

Summary

Operation Safer Streets, phase two, is now in its 13 week. This report deals with current performance and operational issues and the Metropolitan Police Service's (MPS) medium to long-term strategy to build upon and sustain the successes achieved to date in dealing with street crime.

A. Recommendations

Members are asked to note the report.

B. Supporting information

Operations

1. Operation Safer Streets (OSS) continues to deploy officers from specialist units to support officers at Borough Operational Command Units (BOCU's) in combating street crime.

2. 84 traffic officers and 19 traffic vehicles have been seconded to OSS and have been attached to specific boroughs.

3. Tasking and deployment of Territorial Support Group (TSG) officers continue on a routine basis. Each day approximately 140 TSG officers comprising the Borough Reserve are deployed to combat street crime. Approximately 80 TSG officers are also deployed from the Commissioner's Reserve although the abstraction rate for these units is high.

4. BOCU Commanders on the 15 boroughs were tasked to increase the number of officers committed to anti-street crime work as specialist officers deployed are now spread across 15 boroughs as opposed to nine.

5. Using demand reduction options from the developing Operational Policing Model (OPM) and anticipated growth in Budgeted Workforce Targets (BWTs), the number of officers directly deployed on Safer Streets from BOCU's has been increased from 700 to 1,380. These officers have been 'ring-fenced' and a total of 1,858 officers are now dedicated to OSS.

Performance

6. All figures relate to street crime offences only, and comparisons are with the same period last year. (These statistics await confirmation).

• Financial year 2002/2003 to 19 June 2002
  • MPS decrease of 4.7%
  • Safer Streets Boroughs decrease of 4.4%
• Last eight weeks to 19 June 2002
  • MPS decrease of 8.4%
  • Safer Streets boroughs decrease of 8.7%
  • In April and May 2002 a judicial disposal rate of 9.2% was achieved.

Sustainability

7. The sustainability of Safer Streets is a critical issue for the MPS. The 250 traffic officers deployed for phase one was a short-term solution.

8. The tactics used so far successfully to combat street crime are extremely labour intensive and have involved the 'ring fencing' of resources.

9. During phase one and in the early part of phase two, concerns were raised about the resilience of the officers being deployed. The times of day street crimes were being committed meant that officers had to work prolonged hours, particularly late evenings and night time.

10. Although the demanding work continues on a daily basis, there is evidence of increased resilience and reduced tiredness of the workforce. This however will not be the case if additional operations are demanded to combat other volume crime such as burglary.

11. There are a number of operational plans to effectively maintain the campaign through to its conclusion in March 2003. These include:-

Operation Seneca (the policing of priority transport crime corridors) and the Transport for London (TfL). Operation Safer Streets will work in partnership with TfL and the new Transport OCU, as there is a high correlation between these transport routes and robbery 'hotspots'.

• A Strategic Intelligence Unit (SIU) is currently being set up at Territorial Policing HQ that will deal specifically with strategic intelligence and trends in volume crime across London. Strategic research is being carried out by an independent consultant to examine the profiles of offenders, victims and environments and other socio-economic drivers of street crime.
• To enhance OSS capability, abstractions of borough staff will be reduced to a minimum. To support this more public order aid will be taken from non-borough OCUs. This process will be managed by CO11 who will identify key 'heavy aid' dates during July and August. This period sees the beginning of the new football season and the large commitment to Notting Hill Carnival.
• All OSS boroughs have been allocated extra vehicles including 23 Robbery Response Cars (marked), 40 Q cars (unmarked) and 15 mini-buses.
• Over 125 vehicles will be allocated by the end of September to the fifteen OSS boroughs. These include marked response, Q cars, marked mini-buses and victim/witness 'drive round' vehicles
• Driver training has been prioritised over the next three months for OSS boroughs.
• A working group has been developed in conjunction with the Home Office to look at ways of combating the number of mobile phones being stolen during robberies. This includes working with the five main mobile phone companies who are providing a shared database
• A pro-active approach to false reporting of robberies where mobile phones are taken is being adopted. This is being done through investigation of calls made from the phone after the alleged offence has taken place, insistence of provision of the IMEI number by the victim, use of CCTV to confirm victims account of the allegation, publicising consequences of false reporting and use of local/national media.
• A crime prevention campaign will be launched based on campaign conducted during phase one of OSS. This will include publicity and pro-active property marking in street crime hotspots and within schools.
• 15 automatic number plate recognition systems (ANPRs) are being purchased and fitted to marked response vehicles allocated to OSS boroughs. These will be linked to street crime intelligence systems.
• A total of 62 officers from OSS boroughs have been trained in the use of ANPRs. This will allow OSS boroughs to become self-sufficient in the use of ANPRs and allow for an increased use of this tactic focussing on street crime.
• A pool of special constabulary (MSC) officers has been created that will be tasked to OSS boroughs as dictated by intelligence and analysis. The first deployment will be on 13 July 2002.
• Territorial Policing (Ops) is conducting a performance review of all OSS boroughs. This review is part of a wider review/Inspection process and looks at the borough response to OSS. The team visits the borough and looks at the operational and support issues around street crime and provides advice and guidance to the management team and identifies and disseminates best practice.

Criminal justice

12. To address street crime 'criminal justice' issues the MPS has agreed a joint protocol (copy available on request) with the CPS, Greater London Magistrates Court Authority, London Group of Crown Courts and the Probation Service.

13. The purpose and scope of the protocol is to establish a premium service for bringing street crime offenders to justice in London. The provision of such a service requires a co-ordinated multi-agency approach to ensure effective investigation and quality preparation of prosecution cases. Effective implementation of this protocol will undoubtedly maximise the opportunities to bring street crime offenders to justice.

14. The protocol covers the 15 OSS boroughs and will be reviewed in three months.

15. The protocol addresses the following issues:-

• Minimum standards of initial investigation
• Minimum standards of secondary investigation
• Pre-charge activity
• Promoting benefits of early guilty pleas
• Preparation of quality case files
• Designated Robbery Courts
• Effective First Hearings
• Post charge bail issues
• Non-appearance
• Committals
• Adjournments
• Write Offs/discontinuance's
• Preparation for trial
• Trial
• Post sentence provisions
• Performance management

16. In order to achieve more effective outcomes and reduce delay in the preparation and conduct of the trial process, certain courthouses have been designated as robbery courts. The MPS has agreed to provide enhanced security and uniform presence at these courts that will provide extra protection for witnesses and victims.

London Street Crime Management Board

17. This has been set up on the directions of the Minister John Denham. It is anticipated that it will continue for the duration of OSS. It will examine and review the effectiveness and proportionality of the overall street crime reduction strategy across London.

18. The draft terms of reference are:

• To agree the necessary components of the overall street crime reduction strategy as they apply to London (see below).
• To identify and direct appropriate joint management arrangements in each Borough.
• To receive reports from boroughs regarding implementation difficulties and impacts.
• To receive reports from the London Criminal Justice Board and Joint Steering Group for Community Safety regarding implementation issues and impacts.
• To monitor delivery or agreed component strands on a pan-London basis.
• To identify blockages to delivery and where possible apply remedial action.
• Where blockages require action at governmental level, to report to the Minister.
• To monitor outcomes of the various strands of work.
• To identify additional measures which may be required to achieve long-term reductions in street crime.
• To identify community risks consequent on the implementation of the strategy and apply appropriate control measures.
• To provide regular reports to the Minister on the progress and outcomes of the initiative.

Youth justice

19. To address street crime 'youth justice' issues the MPS Operational Policy Support Unit has drafted a Youth Crime Prevention Strategy (copy available on request) incorporating enforcement and Criminal Justice improvement. This will be put before the MPS Management Board in the next few days for approval. This has been compiled in consultation with senior politicians over the past twelve months.

20. The areas that are addressed by the strategy include:-

• Criminal justice issues
• Social factors
• Education issues
• 'What works' in youth crime prevention
• Diversity issues
• Intelligence led youth crime prevention
• Problem solving
• Social diversion
• Investigation
• Police and criminal justice diversion/disruption
• Prioritisation of clients
• Requirements for medium/long term development
• Performance framework
• Governance framework
• Future youth care

21 A Safer Schools Partnership initiative has been launched that will see dedicated police officers deployed into 45 schools, 30 by the end of July and the remainder by the end of September. The schools involved will be located in the 15 Safer Street boroughs.

Reviewing the impact of safer streets

22. The Strategic Research Unit is currently evaluating the impact of the Safer Street Campaign in the MPS.

23. The evaluation will focus on phase one of the Safer Street initiative. However, as the campaign is still in progress, the findings will be fed directly into phase two, in order to ensure the process is evidenced based.

24. The research will be undertaken in two key stages:

• Stage one – to gather and collate all the current data pertaining to the first phase of the campaign.
• Stage two – to conduct qualitative fieldwork in 4 boroughs identified from stage one.

25. The data review will include:-

• An update on current literature and research being undertaken in the field of Street Crime.
• A review of police data focussing on.
• Inputs in terms of resources from TSG, traffic and the borough and the tactics adopted.
• Outputs in terms of crime rates.
• The costs of the interventions.
• Results from the case tracking system.

26. Based on the data review, four boroughs will be selected to explore in further detail. Researchers will conduct observations and interviews with officers involved in the safer street campaign.

27. The research will focus on:-

• The tactics employed by the borough throughout phase one of the Safer Streets campaign.
• The intelligence process and how it supported the targeting of police resources during the campaign.
• The use of local and central resources and officers views of their effectiveness.

C. Financial implications

Funding-operations

1. The Home Office has awarded a grant to the MPS of £5.6 million to purchase capital equipment including a fleet of robbery response cars and covert anti-robbery vehicles. In addition, they have also allocated £7 million for staffing costs to sustain OSS for 12 months.

2. To date there has been a total of £4,253,900 allocated from the capital budget, this includes purchase of vehicles, maintenance, fuel and hire.

3 At present policy does not allow for the capital budget to pay for fuel, maintenance and hire. Authorisation is currently being sought from the Home Office to alleviate this position.

4. To date there has been a total of £2,785,765 allocated from the revenue budget. This includes an allocation to OSS Boroughs of £911,000 for the second quarter of the financial year, travelling time costs for traffic officers for the whole of the OSS period and a one off payment of £500,000 for CJUs.

5. It is anticipated that at the current rate the agreed budget for OSS will be sufficient for the whole of the performance year.

D. Background papers

None.

E. Contact details

Report author: DCI Adam Barton, MPS.

For information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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