Borough performance: 2004/05 financial year

Report: 5
Date: 14 July 2005
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report follows the same format as the previous Borough Performance report, which was submitted to Planning, Performance and Review Committee (PPRC) in March 2005. It provides an overview of key volume crime indicators in each borough for the financial year April 2004 to March 2005 to date, compared with April 2003 to March 2004. Additionally, there is comment on some of the factors influencing performance.

A. Recommendations

That members note the report.

B. Supporting information

Total Notifiable Offences (TNOs) (Appendix 1)

1. At the end of the financial year, TNOs across the whole of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) were down 4.3%, over 45,000 fewer offences. On a borough level, 28 boroughs had fewer TNOs in 2004/05 than in the previous financial year.

2. Boroughs of note in terms of larger reductions were Camden (10.9%, 5.5k offences), Kensington and Chelsea (10.2%, 3.1k offences) and Newham (10.2%, 4.1k offences).

3. In some areas of London, crime overall rose in the financial year. Lewisham saw a 10.3% rise (3.3k offences), while Sutton saw what appears to be a large rise in percentage terms – 4.9% - but is actually an increase of 788 offences over the year.

4. Lewisham’s increase stems from a rise in violence against the person on the borough. Violence Against Person (VAP) overall was up 18% and within this category, Actual Bodily Harm (ABH) up 91%, Harassment up 43% while Grievous Bodily Harm (GBH) was down 9%. Another key contributor is the rise in fraud and forgery offences, accounting for 1,441 (one third) of the total TNO increase.

5. The significant reduction in crime in Camden has been driven by continuous falls in the level of vehicle crime on the borough. There were almost three thousand fewer motor vehicle crime offences in the 2004/05 year compared to 2003/04.

Robbery (Appendix 2)

6. Across the whole of the Metropolitan Police area, robbery fell by 4% over the financial year. While a significant achievement, this fell short of the MPA target of an 11% reduction in robbery offences.

7. 19 boroughs witnessed a decline in robbery offences, 10 of which were in excess of the Metropolitan Police Authority’s (MPA’s) target. Notably, this type of crime fell by 25% in Haringey (500 fewer offences) and by 21% in Hackney (also 500 fewer offences).

8. Hackney attribute their performance to the creation of a robbery task force, comprised of three police sergeants and 18 police constables. The role of this force was to prevent and detect robberies using a variety of methods, namely proactive patrols, a focus on performance and ensuring that robbery reduction was made a priority. With a clearer structure in the Senior Management Team (Hackney borough was split from one to two commands) the borough reduced robbery by a substantial amount.

9. Haringey adopted a high visibility tactic: concentrating patrols on hotspot areas, under the control of two dedicated Chief Inspectors. Robbery and Burglary calls received a priority response, and daily meetings were co-ordinated to assess the intelligence and performance surrounding robbery.

10. Conversely, robbery rose by 21% (200 offences) in Hammersmith and Fulham and by 15% (200 offences) in Brent. In other boroughs, such as Richmond Upon Thames, the percentage increases were higher, but the number of offences recorded was far smaller than these two boroughs.

11. Much of the rise in Hammersmith and Fulham occurred in the early and middle part of the year, and the causes of this (namely, a shift in the drugs market to West London) were discussed in the previous Borough Performance report. Since that report was published, robbery in Hammersmith and Fulham has fallen to lower levels, and the borough has in recent weeks been one of the better performing Operational Command Unit s (OCUs).

Residential Burglary (Appendix 3)

12. Residential Burglary fell across London by 7.2% in the 2004/05 financial year, compared to the 2003/04 year. This equates to 4,912 fewer homes burgled across London. In addition, with 100k residential burglaries recorded over the 2004 calendar year, burglaries are still at their lowest since 1976.

13. 27 of the 31 London boroughs saw burglaries fall in 2004/05, a large proportion of which had falls in excess of the Public Service Agreement (PSA) target of a 7% reduction.

14. Harrow, Lambeth and Hackney have shown significant reductions in residential burglary. Harrow in particular has seen a fall of 21% (400 offences) while in Lambeth, 600 fewer offences were recorded, a reduction of 15.8%.

15. Lambeth introduced a five-day turnaround for the processing of fingerprint and DNA identifications, in which a response and arrest of the suspect was completed within five days of the forensic result. This, combined with proactive tasking around burglary hotspots, has been highlighted as major contributors to the reductions on the borough.

16. Areas of note having significant increases in the number of residential burglary offences include Hammersmith and Fulham (+6.8%, 140 offences), Barnet (+4.3%, 111 offences) and Wandsworth (+3.9%, 100 offences).

Motor Vehicle Crime (Appendix 4)

17. Motor vehicle crime was an area of key success for the MPS in the 2004/05 financial year. Overall, this type of crime fell by 14.4%, some 22,867 fewer offences. Only four of the 32 London boroughs saw an increase in vehicle crime offences throughout the year, and in none of those boroughs was the percentage increase greater than 10%.

18. Camden, Islington and Hackney achieved significant reductions in vehicle crime, ending the year with 34.9%, 33.9% and 22% falls respectively. Camden alone recorded 2,723 fewer offences in the 2004/05 year compared to the previous year.

19. Much of the success in Camden can be attributed to the set-up of a dedicated Motor Vehicle crime team. Activities of this team included:

• Re-examination of recent outstanding forensic cases against suspects and the national databases
• Actively targeting prolific vehicle thieves
• The setting up of a motor vehicle crime desk in the Borough’s intelligence unit
• Working with partners, such as Camden council in order to provide more secure areas for car parking and bicycle racks
• A forensic surgery where recent victims of car-crime brought their vehicle to the police station for further forensic testing.

Further update: April and May 2005

20. The first point to note is that data for April and May 2005 is compared with the same two months in 2004. Therefore, the data is more liable to larger fluctuations due to the fact that with the figures above, twelve months of data ‘smooths out’ any seasonal effects. It is therefore sensible to report data for the boroughs in the last two months in actual figures, rather than percentages.

21. TNOs across the whole of the MPS are down by 0.9% for the two months compared with the same two months last year. However, some boroughs have shown larger reductions than the average. Tower Hamlets has recorded 759 fewer offences since last year, while Hammersmith and Fulham and Kensington and Chelsea have recorded 512 and 476 fewer offences respectively.

22. Total offences have risen in the last two months in Newham (563) and Haringey (392) and much of this rise can be attributed to robbery offences.

23. Robbery has risen, as stated above, in Newham (198 additional offences) and Southwark (173 additional offences). The number of offences has fallen however in Enfield (55 fewer offences) and Bromley (44 fewer offences).

24. Wandsworth is the best performing borough so far this year in terms of reducing residential burglary. In April and May, there were 128 fewer offences on the borough compared to the same period last year. Tower Hamlets has seen a rise in burglary, some 145 extra offences compared to last year.

25. Motor vehicle crime continues to fall across the MPS down 0.3% compared to last year. Hammersmith and Fulham and Camden lead the way with 371 and 231 fewer offences respectively. Camden’s performance is particularly striking when considered in the context of the large reductions achieved last year, as described in further detail above. Vehicle crime is, however, rising on Barnet where 297 additional offences have been recorded in the performance year to date.

Changes that have taken place in boroughs and the impact this has made on performance

Safer Neighbourhood Teams

26. With residential burglary in London at a 25 year low, the MPS has made significant progress in tackling priority crime.

27. Safer Neighbourhoods provides neighbourhood-based policing across the capital, with a dedicated team of officers for each area, consisting of one sergeant, two constables and three Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs). Local communities now have a real say in deciding the priorities for that area, allowing the MPS to provide local solutions to local problems, whilst maintaining a focus on reducing priority crime. The aim is to provide a Safer Neighbourhoods team in every neighbourhood in London by 2008 (subject to funding).

28. A survey published on 13 April 2005, shows that on the four wards examined there were large falls in worry about crime and anti-social disorder, and corresponding improvements in feelings of safety during the first six months of the Safer Neighbourhood initiative and improved satisfaction with the level of local uniformed patrol. There is evidence of some crime reduction and each borough now has at least eight Safer Neighbourhood Teams in place, although many of these are now ‘bedding-in’ and are likely to impact on performance more as this goes on.

Wider police family – ShopWatch

29. ShopWatch is an innovative and effective partnership between the Metropolitan Police Service and the retail industry. Shop staff are supported by their retailer when they volunteer to become Special Constables, by the retailer providing time off for training and one day per fortnight for patrols, which take place in identified retail areas, usually near the store where they work. A large-scale launch of the scheme commenced with the Oxford Street and Regent Street scheme in November 2004, with a phased introduction across the MPS during 2005 and 2006.

30. The scheme has already delivered excellent results, and significant benefits for the MPS, the general shopping public and retailers. Evidence from Camden indicates that a significant amount of credit card fraud has been prevented, arrests by ShopWatch Specials are in double figures and stock loss in Woolworths has halved.

Persistent and other Priority Offenders (PPOs)

31. The PPO Scheme is aimed at co-ordination and focus of effort from all the agencies that at some stage deal with the same, small number of offenders who commit a disproportionate amount of crime. The scheme is designed to stop their offending behaviour through intervention and if that fails, arrest them and put them through the criminal justice process where further intervention will take place.

32. As at 13 June 2005, there were 1,036 PPOs within the MPS. Within that total some 358 (35%) were currently remanded in custody or in prison, 206 (19%) were currently on bail, 157 (15%) were legally unrestrained and 36 (3%) were currently wanted 50 (5%) of offenders were known solely for domestic violence and a further 17 were known for domestic violence in combination with another offence. The highest numbers of PPOs are aged between 17 and 21 (302, 29.1%) followed by 22 and 26 (218, 21.0%).

33. Several boroughs have refined their PPO selections to maximise the impact on crime. The main offences being impacted on are Burglary with 338 PPOs (33%) and Robbery with 205 PPOs (20%). Some boroughs are already able to evidence how the PPO Scheme has increased detections and reduced crime in specific communities.

Command, Control, Communication and Information (C3i)

34. The C3i Programme has transitioned Southwark and Lewisham borough call receipt and despatch into MetCall and further borough transitions are imminent. The percentage of 999 calls answered within 15 seconds has averaged 92% since 1 April 2005 (well above the service level of 80%). An increasing number of calls are resolved at first point of contact thereby reducing officer deployment and Metcall is answering approximately 15% more non-emergency calls than was previously done by the two boroughs thereby enhancing the ability of the public to contact their local police.

Devolved funding

35. In the MPS, the devolution of budgets is to OCU Commanders or equivalent and a number of budgets have been devolved to OCU level since the mid 1980s. Following a pathfinder exercise some budgets were devolved service-wide from April 2003 (i.e. cleaning, minor repairs, utility (gas and electricity), translator and Forensic Medical Examiner (FME) budgets). The forensics budget was devolved service-wide from April 2004. Police pay was devolved to BOCUs from April 2004.

36. The devolution of these budgets has clearly enabled local managers to respond in a more flexible and timely manner to local policing demands, with a positive effect on performance e.g. Bexley, which is a pilot site for full budget devolution. They have been able to make quantified savings of £250,000 for the 2003/2004 financial year. They were able to carry forward £100,000 of this of which 75% has been redirected to front-line operational policing e.g. hire cars.

Changes to tasking and co-ordinating of central assets (following introduction of the Central Operations business group)

37. The new process for central tasking is being built on the strong foundations that already exist within Territorial Policing, Specialist Crime Directorate and Specialist Operations. It will ensure that the specialist units within the MPS are deployed to best effect.

38. The system currently in operation is for BOCUs to submit bids for funding/resources to the Territorial Policing (TP) Crime Operations and Tasking meeting (fortnightly). Selected bids, agreed by TP Command Team with reference to the most pressing priorities, are forwarded to the next Central Operations Tasking meeting (fortnightly) for access to funds and central assistance e.g. Territorial Support Group (TSG).

Extended policing (i.e. Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), Local Authority schemes and accreditation)

Business Improvement Districts

39. Since the beginning of 2005, the number of approved Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) has been steadily increasing. Current returns suggest that there will be upwards of a dozen such schemes in London by early 2006. The basic principle upon which they operate is the concept of a supplementary levy on the Business Rate, which will then by used to deliver additional resources in the area of the BID.

40. These schemes seek to enhance public reassurance with an increased visible patrolling presence. This may take the form of either privately employed wardens or MPS employed Community Support Officers. The MPS has a policy of providing particular support for those schemes that choose to utilise PCSOs over wardens. The rationale for this is that the use of PCSOs fits more closely with the Safer Neighbourhood Programme.

Local Authority schemes

41. The benefits accruing to the single agency model of policing, notably control and standardisation need to be maintained under a system where elements of the policing function are delivered by various organisations. To some extent this is being achieved by developing the Community Support Officer role, whereby the visible patrolling presence function, carried out by local authority wardens, is undertaken by staff coming under the umbrella of the extended policing family, thereby subject to training and management provided by the Service.

Accreditation

42. An alternative to this is the option of accrediting private schemes in accordance with the provisions of Section 40, Police Reform Act 2002. The resulting Community Safety Accreditation Scheme (CSAS) permits the accreditation of external agencies, provided that certain criteria are met.

43. In addition to the obvious benefits relating to control and the maintenance of standards, should be added the advantages of greater coordination of activity, ensuring that the impact of the various forms of patrolling presence is maximised. Furthermore, a closer working relationship will improve the quantity of intelligence coming into the MPS.

44. There has been a proliferation in the deployment of uniformed, private security patrols in a variety of settings which has contributed to a sea-change in the environment within which policing is delivered. Local authority wardens are regularly patrolling many public parks and residential estates. All of this has had an effect on the delivery of policing and has changed attitudes to the appropriateness of delivering this function through a diversity of agencies. There is a single, pilot accreditation scheme operating in respect of the Southwark local authority warden scheme. Current timescales show that the evaluation of this pilot will be completed by the end of 2005 with a view to making it available London-wide from the beginning of 2006.

Management action taken on both good and bad performance

45. A comprehensive performance framework within Territorial Policing (TP) features a structured series of regular performance meetings on borough and at TP Headquarters, chaired variously by the Assistant Commissioner (AC), Deputy Assistant Commissioner (DAC) and link commanders, backed up by targeted data and analysis, field visits, planning reviews and the promulgation of good practice. There is a particular focus on examining and understanding exceptional performance on boroughs (whether good or poor), with the ambition of achieving uniformly high levels of performance across all boroughs.

46. Within TP Command Team, the DAC, four link commanders and Westminster borough commander are accountable for crime performance and this is reflected in their personal pay-related objectives.

47. Link commanders meet regularly with borough commanders, individually and in groups to discuss and consider performance against borough commanders’ crime objectives. Interventions are usually informal but may include ‘field visits’ to examine specific issues. These visits may focus on specialist areas or on more general areas of performance.

48. Crime Control Strategy Meetings (CCSMs) are themed meetings focusing on specific topics such as sanctioned detections, PPOs, Safer Neighbourhoods etcetera. These meetings, chaired by Commander (Performance Review), bring together ‘similar boroughs’ to share good practice and issues of relevance. This good practice is communicated widely and followed up in field visits, at performance meetings, during planning reviews and in discussions with borough commanders and their staff.

49. The TP Performance Review Unit supports the performance framework, through a ‘field visit’ capability for link commanders, data development, strategic analysis, ‘Asgard’ crime management expertise, a planning overview and support for performance meetings.

The impact of best practice disseminated to boroughs

50. The TP Crime Control Strategy Meetings (CCSMs) were set up in June 2004 as a series of themed meetings to identify from Boroughs the successful solutions they use, the barriers that prevent them from achieving and the emerging issues that may affect them in the future. Notes are made at the meetings and are circulated on the TP Performance Review Unit website and to participating boroughs. Individual boroughs are expected to take on and report back on good practice through this CCSM process.

51. What works for one particular Borough may not work for others. Examples include:

• Camden BOCU re-designed disabled driver badges that led to a large reduction in theft from motor vehicles. This model was later used by Tower Hamlets and Southwark BOCUs and reduced their theft from motor vehicle reports extensively.
• Tower Hamlets BOCU has brought in a policy that when an officer attends a domestic incident and they do not arrest a suspect at the scene they must inform a supervising officer. The computer-aided dispatch (CAD) is kept open for 24 hours and officers must continue to attend the address in order to locate and arrest the suspect. Tower Hamlets have the highest detection rate for domestic incidents in the MPS - 70.3% as at 15 May 2005.

52. Good practice is embedded on BOCUs through follow-ups, field visits performance discussions and planning reviews.

The impact of Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership’s (CDRPs) on decision-making, including synergies and best practice

53. The primary responsibility for performance management in respect of the CDRPs falls to the regional government offices i.e. Government Office for London (GOL). However, although there are some variations across London it seems clear that in a number of ways the CDRPs have had a positive impact on the task of reducing crime and disorder.

54. An example of this is the street crime reduction work that has taken place. It has been noted that while the MPS was making progress in this field the scale of success was significantly enhanced by the contributions of partners within the CDRPs. Other agencies were able to complement the enforcement role of the MPS through contributions centred on education and prevention.

55. The fact that CDRPs carry out their planning on a three-year basis provides a degree of medium to long-term planning, influencing the development of the annual borough policing plans. Boroughs are currently in the early stages of the latest strategy period with crime reduction strategies having been published in April 2005.

56. The work currently being undertaken in respect of the Priority and Prolific Offenders Strategy provides an opportunity for the MPS, together with its partners in the CDRPs, to coordinate their collective resources in this key area. It is anticipated that this will have a significant impact on crime levels across London.

57. With regard to good practice, the MPS has developed an improved system for reporting progress on projects using the Basic Command Unit (BCU) Fund, which provides more information about, not only the progress made during the lifetime of the project, but the results obtained from the initiative. This system enhances the capability of the MPS centrally to identify and disseminate good practice.

58. The MPA partnership fund is also reported on in similar fashion and it is hoped that any changes made to partnership funding streams (Safer Stronger Communities Fund) could utilise a similar model.

59. There is some variation in CDRP performance between boroughs. As part of the combined effort to address this, there is a piece of research being carried out relating to the structures for managing partnership work within the MPS at the borough level and in respect of the joint working that already takes place, often in mixed teams led either by a police officer or a local authority manager.

60. Although difficult to assess direct impact upon performance, there are some good examples of partners working with teams, e.g. Operation Evader III at Kensington and Chelsea, which is tackling a wide range of crime and disorder issues in a three-day operation across the whole of the borough. Some CDRPs have funded Automatic Number Plate Reader (ANPR), cars, analysts, PPO assets (funding extra probation staff), whilst other boroughs have put in place a tasking and co-ordinating process that mirrors the national intelligence model in the MPS.

61. The London Crime Reduction Delivery Board is providing a valuable forum for the spread of good practice and a conduit for communicating key issues between the CDRPs and the heads and senior managers in the participating agencies.

62. Finally, the MPS has substantially implemented the recommendations of the Scrutiny carried out by the MPA. This recognises the importance of CDRPs in the police planning process and the delivery of crime reduction strategies at the borough level.

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. Within the TP monitoring framework there is a recognition of diversity issues relevant to the basket of performance measures, where particular attention is paid to crimes against women and crime against specific communities receives significant consideration.

D. Financial implications

None.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report authors: James Bennett, Performance Analyst, Corporate Performance Group and Superintendent Craig Mitchell, Performance Review, Territorial Policing Headquarters

For more information contact:

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

List of abbreviations

MPS

Metropolitan Police Service

MPA

Metropolitan Police Authority

TNO

Total Notifiable Offences

ABH

Actual Bodily Harm

GBH

Grievous Bodily Harm

VAP

Violence Against Person

OCU

Operational Command Unit

PPO

Persistent and other Priority Offender

CDRP

Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership

TP

Territorial Policing

ANPR

Automatic Number Plate Reader

CCSM

Crime and Control Strategy Meeting

GOL

Government Office for London

DAC

Deputy Assistant Commissioner

CSAS

Community Safety Accreditation Scheme

BID

Business Improvement District

PSA

Public Service Agreement

FME

Forensic Medical Examiner

Send an e-mail linking to this page

Feedback