Borough Performance To July 2004

Report: 5
Date:09 September 2004
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report follows the same format as the previous Borough Performance report, which was submitted to PPRC in July 2004. It provides an overview of key volume crime indicators in each borough for the financial year to date i.e. April to July 2004 compared with April to July 2003.

A. Recommendations

That the report be noted.

B. Supporting information

Total Notifiable Offences

1. After the first four months of the year, TNOs stand at just under 352k offences, which represents a reduction of 2.5% (equivalent to around 9k fewer offences).

2. There are currently 21 boroughs that are experiencing reductions, the best performing amongst these boroughs are Lambeth, Newham and Camden, whose TNO levels are 10.0%, 9.6% and 9.0% lower respectively so far this financial year.

3. Of the remaining 11 boroughs that have seen increases on last year’s TNOs, the most noteworthy boroughs are Lewisham (+17.5%), Brent (6.7%) and Barking & Dagenham (+5.0%).

4. Taking Lewisham’s figures as an example, it can be seen that TNOs have risen against a backdrop of falls in volume priority crimes (i.e. residential burglary, robbery and motor vehicle crime). The rise in TNOs has been partly caused by a rise in lower level theft and violence against the person (VAP). However, it should be stressed that the most recent rises in VAP have affected most of London’s boroughs, in particular section 5 Public order offences and actual bodily harm.

Robbery

5. Robberies in the MPS are down by 11.7% so far this financial year. A total of 24 boroughs are experiencing reductions and within this, 13 boroughs are outperforming the MPS reduction.

6. Haringey, Merton and Sutton are the best three performing boroughs. Managing decreases of 40.7%, 36.1% and 31.1% respectively. Together these boroughs account for 22% of the overall decrease in robbery.

7. Conversely, Harrow (+37.6%), Richmond upon Thames (+36.8%) and Hillingdon (+13.0%) have experienced the highest percentage increases. However these are traditionally lower volume crime boroughs, where any numerical changes lead to larger percentage changes. For instance, together these three boroughs account for just under 5% of all robberies in the MPS.

Residential Burglary

8. With 19.2k residential burglaries between April and July 2004, the MPS is currently 11.3% below the level experienced last year, equivalent to 2.5k fewer victims.

A quarter of this reduction has been achieved by the top three boroughs of Harrow (-31.4%), Camden (-29.2%) and Hounslow (-26.6%).

9. Redbridge (+22.0%), Greenwich (+17.3%) and Kensington & Chelsea (+14.8%), have the largest increases over the period under review. All three of these boroughs report these increases were symptomatic of lower volumes that were brought about as a result of successful proactive operations last year. This is borne out in the statistics with all three boroughs experiencing substantial reductions in April to July 2003 compared with the same period a year earlier. As a result the increases so far this year are indicative of the boroughs being unable to sustain previous performance.

Motor Vehicle Crime

10. The MPS has driven down motor vehicle crime with a 14.9% reduction on last year. The current level stands at 47k offences, which is a significant reduction of 8.2k offences.

11. 29 of the MPS 32 boroughs are experiencing reductions on last year with the three best boroughs (Islington, Camden and Newham) accounting for just under a third of the reduction.

12. The remaining three boroughs, which are currently the only boroughs to see increases are Hammersmith & Fulham (+17.5%), Barking & Dagenham (+0.7%) and Wandsworth (+0.5%). The increase on these three boroughs is equivalent to a rise of 299 offences.

Best Practice

13. Operation Asgard was integral to the MPS’ reduction in autocrime last year. The best practise learned from this is being carried forward this year and has helped contribute to the 14.9% reduction financial year to date.

14. The initiative itself reviewed operational administrative strands of motor vehicle crime recording, although the project has wider applications and has contributed to better practise in crime recording in general.

15. Also worth considering is the increasing role of forensics. Camden attributed its recent successes in residential burglary and motor vehicle crime to increased focus on forensic identification, which led to the targeting of prolific offenders.

16. Among the successes was Harrow’s reduction of residential burglary by 31.4%. The borough attributes this reduction to a variety of initiatives, including:

• The targeting of the right offenders, borne out through arrested nominals subsequently admitting to residential burglary offences that had previously been reported and asked for these offences to be taken into consideration. Building on this was that post conviction ASBOs were sought at sentencing to restrict offenders from making unsolicited visits to addresses following their release from prison.
• The Harrow Safe Home Project has brought gains through target hardening. Since January 2004, approximately 350 homes have been assessed by the borough’s Crime Reduction Unit as being high risk (through vulnerability of victim and repeat offences). Appropriate crime prevention advice has been given to these residents and if certain requirements have been fulfilled, funding has been given to change locks and secure weak entry points.
• Allied to this is the partnership initiative; the Safer Gardens Project, which focuses on unmaintained gardens as entry approaches to potential burglary targets.

Street Crime Performance – Financial Year 2003/04

17. The commissioning brief asks for further comment on the variation 2003/04 year-end performance in street crime performance between the boroughs as reported to PPRC for July 2004. A point to stress is that street crime is no longer measured by the MPS as policing plan objectives are aligned to long term Public Service Agreements and Statutory Performance Indicators as prescribed by the Home Office.

18. The MPS now measures robbery (which comprises robbery of personal property and robbery of business property) and the variations between the boroughs in the first four months of 2004/05 can be seen in Appendix 2(i) – robbery chart. These have been further described in points four to six of this paper.

19. However, in line with the commissioning brief, paragraphs 20 to 25 below provide further explanation of the street crime figures for Sutton and Westminster.

20. To re-cap; Sutton had reported an increase of 28.0% for the financial year 2003/4 compared with the year before, whilst Westminster reported a 27.0% decrease over the same period.

21. The first issue to raise is that of volume. The rise at Sutton equated to 85 extra offences over the year, equivalent to just over one-and-half extra offences per week. Once again it can be seen that relatively small changes in volume adversely affected the percentage changes. This is especially the case for February 2004, where Sutton experienced a sharp and extreme spike in its robbery totals. Wider swings in performance are also further reflected in the fact that, Sutton only accounted for 0.6% of the MPS street crime volume, compared with Westminster’s 4.7%.

22. However, just as important is that Westminster is a traditionally high volume borough that delivered both a high volume and percentage reduction. The 27% decrease meant there were 932 fewer offences in 2003/04 compared with the year before (using the same scaling as above, this is around 18 fewer offences per week.)

23. One of the primary differences between Westminster and Sutton, which helped to deliver the street crime reduction is the level of resourcing. Since February 2002 Westminster has been a designated Operation Safer Streets (OSS) borough receiving financial and operational support to combat street crime. Sutton was not selected as an OSS borough and consequently any support provided would have been less frequent relative to the fifteen OSS boroughs.

24. It is also important to remember that additional resourcing was provided to Westminster for increased counter-terrorism patrols. It should be remembered that Westminster is the home for many key government buildings, iconic sites and embassies, all of which required an additional policing presence in the aftermath of 11th September 2001.

25. In short, the increase in operational support for both OSS and counter-terrorism has helped to deliver the substantial volume reduction in street crime.

C. Race and equality impact

Although there were varying borough performances, the MPS remains committed to making the whole of London safer. Furthermore, implications of performance against individual targets are considered in the in-depth performance report throughout the year, which examine performance at the corporate level.

D. Financial implications

None

E. Background papers

Borough Performance (presented to PPRC in July 2004)

F. Contact details

Report authors: Vinay Bhardwaj, MPS Corporate Performance Analysis Unit

For more information contact:

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

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