Corporate performance report: financial year; 2005/06

Report: 7
Date: 8 June 2006
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report provides an overview of MPS performance for the financial year, 2005/06 with regards to the targets and indicators in the 2005/06 Policing Plan. It includes

• A retrospective overview of how the year has gone in performance terms
• Detailed analysis of street crime/robbery issue, including action plans
• Issues that have arisen during 2005-06 in meeting the targets
• Any issues likely to impact upon meeting the 2006-07 top level targets

Appendix 1 - 2005/06 Policing Plan target & indicator figures including iQuanta rankings and brief comments as per the previous periodic reports in 2005/06

Appendix 2 – Table of 2005/06 figures for the 13 high level critical areas for this year 2006/07 with 2006/07 data where available

Appendix 3 – Table of other 2006/07 Policing Plan targets & indicators values .

A. Recommendation

That Members note the report.

B. Supporting information

1. Members are referred to Appendices 1, 2 and 3.

Introduction

2. This report provides an overview of MPS performance against the targets and indicators in the 2005/06 Policing Plan with commentary on those targets which were not met. Then there is a section on challenges that may arise in connection with the 2006/07 Policing Plan’s 13 critical areas. This is followed by a paper devoted entirely to robbery.

Chapter 1 - overview 2005/06

3. 2005/06 was a successful year for the MPS. It achieved 39 of the 55 targets. Most of the targets relating to sanction detections were achieved and other two were close to being met. On the other hand all the targets relating to reducing crime were missed.

4. Below is an analysis of performance against targets and indicators by the 2005/06 Plan Objective. Appendix 1 has the actual figures.

Objective 1 - Minimise the risk from terrorist activities & and maintain an effective response to terrorist incidents

5. Four of the five targets were achieved including the completion of all the security reviews of the mission critical buildings.

6. There were problems with the target for answering the anti-terrorism hotline within the target time. In quarter 1, calls were rerouted due to work to the room where the calls were normally received. Because of a technical problem with the divert facility, BT was unable to calculate the relevant statistics for this target but the calls themselves were dealt with as usual.

7. In quarter 2 following the July 7th bombing, an overwhelming majority of hotline calls were answered but, due to the sheer volume of calls received (25,360), some of these were not within target time. During July SO12 temporarily took over the hotline, answering the calls and making the decisions on the appropriate action. Different call handling procedures were adopted during this time, which involved paper records. This together with the BT technical problem with the divert facility resulted in data not being available in an easily recoverable format.

8. The target response rate has been achieved for every month since July.

Objective 2 – Reduce the level of gun enabled crime

9. The sanction detection rate target for gun crime was achieved. However gun crime rose by over 4% or 154 offences and so the gun crime reduction target was missed.

10. The majority of increases occurred in crimes investigated by Specialist Crime. In particular Operation Trident/Trafalgar non-fatal GEC offences increased by 88. Similarly commercial robberies by firearms increased by 37 offences to 602 offences FY 05/06.

11. The increases in Trident/Trafalgar related offences are attributed to offenders aged between 17-20 years of age. Their willingness to carry and use firearms is a trend that has been highlighted in previous reports.

12. There has been an increased effort to ensure resources are tasked and deployed against known offenders who use firearms and against identified Criminal Networks. This work is being co-ordinated by the newly created Gun Crime Delivery Unit which has been set up to bring together intelligence from across the MPS Business Groups in respect of gun enabled crime.

13. From November through to April the monthly average has been 258 offences a month which is a significant improvement on the average for April ‘05 to October of 347.

Objective 3 - Disrupt organised criminal networks, the activities they are involved in and seize their assets in order to reduce harm in neighbourhoods and communities

14. Both the target for value of assets seized and criminal networks disrupted were comfortably achieved with £35.2 M assets seized vs £5 M target and 115 networks disrupted against a target of 50.

Objective 4 - Improve neighbourhood safety

15. Five of the nine targets are likely to be met – the data is not final for four of them. Particularly encouraging given the roll-out of Safer Neighbourhood Teams was the reduction in the rate of people who thought there was a high level of anti-social behaviour in their area as well as the achievement of the sanction detection rate targets for domestic burglary and motor vehicle crime. On the other hand the reduction targets for domestic burglary, vehicle crime and BCS crime were not achieved though BCS crime did go down by almost 1%.

16. Vehicle crime - theft of motor vehicle reduced by 9.5% but theft from motor vehicle increased by 7%. In 2005/6 satellite navigation systems accounted for approximately 4% of theft from MV offences, although the property search code was only introduced in September 2005. Theft of this equipment is likely to increase during the forthcoming year as they become more common.

17. Theft of registration plates has only been captured as a statistic since February 2004. From February – July 2004 such thefts accounted for 5% of Theft from Motor Vehicle offences. There has been an upward trend from January 2005 with the last six months (November 05 – April 06) showing levels of between 10-11%.

18. It is possible that the increase in the congestion charge and proliferation of Enforcement cameras may be a contributory factor in that criminals may use stolen registration plates to avoid detection. Of note however, is 20% of stolen registration plates have subsequently been used in theft of petrol offences.

19. Legislation in early 2004 was brought in to prevent persons obtaining duplicate registration plates unless appropriate documentation was produced. This has impeded criminals in obtaining new registration plates from retailers however no such safeguards exist through purchase via the Internet. Theft of number plates also continued to rise throughout 2005/6, increasing by 18% when comparing the two halves of the year. One motive for stolen number plates is theft of petrol.

20. Residential burglary increased by 1.7% while criminal damage to dwellings decreased by 8.5%. The National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS) compliance during 2005-06 directed that damage to lower entry points of buildings would be recorded as attempted burglary unless there was evidence to the contrary, whereas previously it had been recorded as criminal damage. Residential burglary plus criminal damage to a dwelling decreased by 5.1% in 2005/06 which suggests that the 1.7% increase in residential burglary overstates the true situation.

21. British Crime Survey (BCS) recorded crime reduced by 0.9% for all BCS crimes. It is a grouping of recorded crime that closely corresponds to the crime picked up by British Crime Survey through its annual surveying of the public to get a picture of household and personal crime that is not reported to the police. BCS recorded crime accounts for almost 60% of all crime and is the indicator that the Home Office has set targets for police forces as part of its efforts to achieve its Public Service Agreement (PSA) 1 with the Treasury.

22. It includes both residential burglary and motor vehicle crime as mentioned above. Among the other major components criminal damage decreased by 9.8% and BCS violence (common assault & wounding) by 2.7%, while personal robbery, theft of a bicycle and other theft person rose by, 15.4%, 10% and 1.5% respectively.

23. Below under ’13 Critical areas’ are more issues that affect this crime group which also applied to 2005/06.

Objective 5 - Improve our contribution to the Criminal Justice System

24. The MPS met all its targets in this objective – the Offences Brought To Justice, the numbers of outstanding warrants, and the sanction detection rate were at least 8% better than their targets.

Objective 6 - Improve the citizen experience in their contacts with the Police

25. Ten out of twelve targets reflecting the citizen experience have been met. Improvements in victim satisfaction are particularly encouraging, with the overall satisfaction rate going up by 11 percentage points. and the satisfaction of victims of racist incidents increasing by 14 percentage points.

26. The targets for answering the telephone were also met but the MPS was unsuccessful with its targets for attending to immediate and ‘S’ (soon) incidents where performance last year was lower than the year before with no month at the 2004/05 average in either category. This may have been due to an increase in demand of 3.8% in 2005/06 over 2004/05 for immediate calls but that was not the case with ‘S’ calls which declined by 11% in 2005/06.

Objective 7 - Reduce the level of violence & increase the number of violent offenders brought to justice

27. Performance was mixed for this Objective with 6 targets missed and 8 achieved. All the sanction detection rate targets including the ones for robbery, racist crime and domestic violence were met except those for homophobic crime (only 0.4 percentage points off) and violent crime (1.6 percentage points off).

28. Robbery and violent crime targets were missed but if robbery had not increased the target for violent crime would have been met. Moreover, wounding and common assault offences combined fell by 2.7%; with more than 3,800 fewer assaults across London. The reduction target for serious violence –i.e. GBH plus ABH excluding hate crime was not achieved as it increased by 9%. Part of this may be a change in classification in mid 2004/05 that moved crime common assault to ABH though we have tried to allow for that. In any event GBH on its own increased by 3.5%.

29. The newly formed Violent Crime Directorate will focus MPS effort and attention on domestic violence, hate crime, Multi Agency public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA), sexual offences and missing persons as well as GBH, ABH and personal robbery.

30. Although the MPS fell just short of its total detection target for rape in 2005/06 – less than 2 percentage points below the target, it comfortably met the target for rape sanction detections by over 4 percentage points. Sanction detections

31. The MPS has not set targets for total detections in 2006/07, choosing to focus on case disposal options that tend to lead to an offence being brought to justice (OBTJ).

Business group strategies

32. Performance in reducing police officer sickness and delivery of efficiency savings was good and significantly above target – efficiency savings were over a third above the target.

33. The black and minority ethnic police officer recruitment target was missed by a very wide margin in 2005/06 but this was very challenging as it required performance to more than double. 13.3% of all recruits including transferees from other forces were from black and ethnic minority communities which was an improvement on the 11.5% figure for 2004/05. The proportion of black and minority ethnic officer new recruits increased to 15.8% from 13.6% in 2004/05 but only about 4% of transferees from other forces and rejoiners were BME. There has been a marked increase in the proportion of black and minority ethnic candidates applying to become police officers over the past 2 years, with applications increasing from 21% (2003/04) to 41% (2005/06) and at one point peaked at 45%.

34. During June 2005, the Home Office increased the pass threshold for the police national recruitment standards (NRS) assessment centre from 50% to 60%. The change in the threshold resulted in the BME pass rate decreasing from 63% to 30%, and for BME applicants whose first language was not English the pass rate decreased from 46% to 15%. Consequently, the attrition during the subsequent NRS assessment centres more than doubled. In terms of people, the change in pass threshold meant that approximately 140 BME were rejected over and above the planned attrition; these 140 applicants would have yielded approximately 115 BME recruits.

35. The MPS has identified, and is currently investigating, reasons for why disproportionalities exist with the NRS process. There is strong evidence that the BME pass rate is significantly lower than that of white applicants. Centrex published an analysis of the NRS processes in September 2005 to which the MPS drafted a response for further areas of study. This paper opened communication lines for Centrex and the MPS to work together and do complementary research and a continued evaluation of all NRS processes.

• In order to help retain black and minority ethnic candidates, the Me+ Careers has developed a partnership with the training school to assist in the extra support required for those candidates who speak English as an additional language.
• continued the use of Access Courses (run at four different educational institutions) to help those who have English as an Additional Language. Recruit Training School are working with the Me+ Careers team and the course providers to develop these courses to better prepare the individuals attending the Foundation Course specifically.

36. The target for police staff sickness was also not achieved. Ongoing work and interventions by Occupational Health can be seen in the reductions in sickness during 2005/06 with, PCSO and traffic warden sickness rates improving markedly over the course of the financial year. PCSO sickness has improved this financial year, falling from 12.1 to 11.1 days by the end of March 2006 and traffic warden sickness has reduced from 14.4 to 11 days.

Chapter 2 - 13 critical areas

37. For 2006/07 the Policing Plan concentrates on 13 critical targets which are listed in Appendix 2 while Appendix 3 lists the other indicators and targets that are in the Plan.

38. BCS recorded crime and its subset of BCS violence are both among the MPS’s 13 critical areas for 2006/07. The 6.3% reduction target for all BCS crime is likely to prove to be extremely challenging in the light of MPS TNO reduction performance over the last 6 years. In order to meet the Government’s PSA 1 target for the MPS for 2007/08 a similar target will need to be set for 2007/08. It is hoped that additional and more focussed resources such as Safer Neighbourhood teams will enable the target to be met.

39. To achieve PSA1 there must be reductions in all the top three contributors: BCS wounding & common assault, criminal damage and motor vehicle crime. Together these categories account for about 70% of all BCS crime.

40. There is also concern about the lack of engagement between the Probation Service and MPS (in particular with BOCU Priority and Prolific Offender officers who monitor priority criminals). It is seen as desirable for co-locating Police and the Probation Service to enable issues to be discussed without delays (such as the necessity of arranging meetings). Successful integration of IT systems, as at Camden and Islington, also enables police and the probation service to monitor and review action plans in the absence of the other. Home Office research indicates Prolific Priority Offenders make up only 0.5% of known criminals but are thought to commit 10% of recorded crime.

41. BCS violence is of lesser concern in terms of hitting the target because it went down by 2.7% in 2005/06 and violence against the person showed its first decline in six years. Violence against the person and robbery come under this area and will be monitored but do not have targets. Robbery is dealt with in depth below.

42. The two victim survey areas - satisfaction with overall service and satisfaction of victims of racist incidents are likely to be met as long as performance does not decline from 2005/06. A similar situation pertains to the area on percentage of people who think anti-social behaviour is a problem but final data for 2005/06 won’t be available until July.

• The critical areas for counter terrorism and crime in the most challenging wards are under development.
• There is no target for the front line policing measure but it is monitored as the MPS is looking to maximise the number and percentage of officers and staff in operational roles.

43. The targets for domestic violence incidents with a power of arrest where an arrest was made, the sanction detection rate and the number of offences brought to justice seem achievable at this point in time.

44. Evidence is that MPS operations are proving successful, as levels of gun-enabled crime have decreased. The monthly average number of these crimes has declined form 347 for April’ 05 to November to 258 since then. If that level of crime continues, then the MPS can expect to achieve the target of 305 gun crimes a month.

45. The target for disrupting criminal networks is being reviewed as the number of disruptions last year is higher than the 2006/07 target due to the fact that the relevant information has to be manually assessed on a case-by-case basis.

46. For 2007/08 consideration needs to be given to setting targets with reference to the end of the year performance to avoid the need to reset them later.

Chapter 3 – robbery

Robbery of personal property

1. Safer Streets impact
   1. Although Personal Robbery levels were already becoming less stable towards the end of financial year 2004/05, the most noticeable increase in offending in 2005/06 appears to have been in April 2005 with average volumes having increased from under 3,200 a month in preceding 6 months to nearly 3,500 in the following 6 months. This coincides with the withdrawal of Safer Streets funding and was most notable on the former Safer Streets boroughs. Since that time, levels remained fairly constant until March 2006 when the volume represented the highest monthly figure since January 2002.
2. Notable dates.
   1. The introduction of statutory charging (1 November 2004), the new sentencing guidelines (relevant to offences from 1 April 2005) and free travel for under-16s (September 2005) appear to have had no obvious sustained impact on offending rates. There was an isolated and unsustained increase in July 2005 following the ‘7/7’ bombings.
3. Detections
   1. The sanction detection rate of 12.3% for the financial year 2005/06 was the highest ever recorded by the MPS, up from 11.1% in 2004/05; this is a result of a steady improvement since October ’05; recent monthly rates are in excess of 14%.
4. Youth crime
   1. Youths (10 to 17 yrs) account for around 60% of those accused of Personal Robbery offences; there has been no great variation in this level over the last 18 months.
   2. There has, however, been a notable increase in the proportion of youth victims throughout 2005/06. This was particularly apparent in the last quarter when the figure rose to 50% from the 40% at which it had stood for the 12 months prior to December 2005.
5. Impact of Schools Liaison Officers
   1. Since its inception in July 2002, the Safer School Partnerships has expanded to reach the stage at which there are now 173 Schools Officers in post covering c. 290 of London’s 407 state secondary schools. One effect of the work of the Schools Officers appears to have been an increased willingness for youths to report offences committed against them. Acts of bullying are now being reported as crimes, such as assault and robbery.
6. Property types
   1. The top four property types stolen in Personal Robbery over the last three years were:
      1. Mobile Phones – 22%
      2. British Bank Notes – 16%
      3. Credit Cards and Purses – 15%
      4. Wallets and Handbags – 14%
      5. Total – 67%
   2. Each category accounts for over 10,000 stolen items each year. Over the last three years, the average number of British bank notes, credit cards and purses, wallets and handbags stolen each month has remained fairly constant. Throughout FY 2003/04 and FY 2004/05 the number of mobile phones stolen each month maintained a steady average of around 1500 but during FY 2005/06 the number has increased steadily reaching over 2000 in March 2006.
7. Bail of persons arrested for robbery
   1. Between January and March 2006, of the 3,600 persons arrested for Robbery across the MPS, 59% were bailed to return whilst only 35% were charged or cautioned/reprimanded. Although no statistical analysis has been conducted, anecdotally, the statutory charging procedure is a contributory factor. During this same period, 64% of the arrested persons were aged 10-17 yrs, 24% 18-25 yrs and the remaining 12%, over 25 yrs (Source: Custody System).
   2. A dip sample of robbery CRIS reports during February 2006 indicated that 69% of all accused were granted post charge or police bail. This rose to 79% for persons under 18 years old but was only 29% for persons over 17 years.
   3. During the investigation of the offence, 47% all of suspects were granted police bail. This increased to 55% of suspects under 18 years but was only 14% of those over 17 yrs.
   4. There are currently 1,062 Prolific and Priority Offenders (PPOs) registered across the MPS, of which 24.4% are shown as being of interest for their involvement in robbery. Overall, 13.6% of PPOs are 18 yrs or under.

Robbery of commercial property

8. Levels of crime
   1. Commercial robbery rose by 27.1% in 2005/06, an increase of 604 offences, approx. 12 per week.

TP action plans (robbery of personal property)

9. Recent borough initiatives
   1. Southwark and Lewisham – Under Operation Challenger these boroughs are currently receiving enhanced support from CO & TP to tackle personal robbery. Newham, Tower Hamlets and Brent receive the same support for both robbery and burglary.
   2. Lewisham – Operation Awesome ran in April and pro-actively targeted robbery in the north of the borough.
   3. Ealing – Running a cross-border operation with Hillingdon, utilising the TSG to target robbery problem areas.
   4. Southwark – Operation Keston is also an anti robbery initiative which ran through April, and uses different tactics in different parts of the borough; combating bike offences and cross border in the north and bus offences in Elephant and Castle. The operation began on 27/03/06 and ran until 30/04/06.
   5. Croydon – Operation Uniform ran through April. This operation was directed towards reducing robbery around the Borough hotspots and transport links, hotspots for offending were identified and schoolchildren were also identified as the main victim group. HVP was used in conjunction with transport revenue inspectors.
   6. Waltham Forest – Operation Brownlow ran throughout April and targeted robbery along with other priorities. TSG and borough resources were also used for targeted patrolling.
   7. Hackney - Hackney Borough Task Force are the borough’s response to robbery (two Task Force Units, based North and South) and carry out intelligence led patrols in robbery hot spots. They are also responsible for taking crime reports for robbery / snatch victims. This ensures that the target crimes are rigorously investigated as close to the time of offence as possible and allows for a more productive drive round with victims and witnesses.
10. Operation ‘Safer Streets 06’
    1. Operation ‘Safer Streets 06’, launched in May 2006, will be utilising tried and tested methods and tactics to reduce robbery of personal property across London. Partner agencies will be invited to play their role, and a key to success will be energetic and focussed leadership at all levels across the Service.
    2. Safer Streets 06 will be led on behalf of the MPS by Commander Steve Allen of the MPS Violent Crime Directorate (VCD). Assistant Commissioner Tim Godwin will be accountable to Management Board for the progress of the operation. The VCD will co-ordinate the operation, bringing together resources from across the MPS. Structures and processes will be consistent with and feed into Corporate Tasking and other MPS operating procedures.
    3. There will be daily management meetings at which performance over the previous 24 hours will be discussed and any necessary action initiated. There will be a Gold Group meeting every Monday morning for the 3-month duration of the operation at which performance and the wider strategic issues will be discussed.
    4. The initial focus will be on eight boroughs chosen on the basis of recent performance and on their overall contribution to the overall performance of the MPS.
    5. The operation sets BOCUs minimum requirements to respond to the planned Robbery initiative, including identifying a Single Point of Contact (SpoC) of at least Superintendent rank responsible for grip, focus and performance.
    6. TPHQ Volume and Violent Crime resources will have responsibility for liaison; fund and resource management; training, guidance and advice; media strategy; data collation; daily intelligence; support for cross-border operations; criminal justice issues through LCJB.
11. Safer Streets legacy
    1. Traditional ‘Safer Streets’ tactics, such as the use of Robbery Q Cars, have seen continued use on BOCUs such as Islington, Ealing and Haringey with the latter experiencing considerable success in recent months. Other activities such as the use of witness album display systems (WADS) and anniversary scene visits have passed into the standard procedures for the investigation of many types of offence.
    2. However, one serious concern of BOCUs that make substantial use of Robbery Q Cars is that they are now left to fund vehicles that are coming to the end of their useful life and will shortly need replacing at considerable cost.

C. Race and equality impact

Implications of performance against individual targets are considered in in-depth performance reports throughout the year. This report notes exceptions in strategic disproportional indicators where applicable.

D. Financial implications

The content of this report raises no additional financial implications beyond forecasts and estimates previously presented to the authority.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Worth Houghton and James A Bennett, Corporate Performance Analysis Unit, Performance Directorate, MPS

For more information contact:

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

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