Building safer communities across London 2007 Problem Solving Award winners announced

14/07
20 February 2007

The winners of the 2007 Problem Solving Award, celebrating innovative problem solving projects to promote safer communities across the capital, were announced this afternoon.

1st place:
‘Operation Bustag’, a tailored CCTV response from the Transport Operational Command Unit (TOCU) to tackle the problem of criminal damage on London’s buses (estimated at £10m annually) and reduce the fear of crime for the travelling public;

2nd place:
'CoP (Community or Police) Cards’ youth engagement project in Kingston upon Thames to break the cycle of young people joining gangs and becoming involved in anti-social behaviour at an early age;

3rd place:
'COP (Community Orientated Policing) Leadership Course’ on the Holland Estate, Tower Hamlets, to encourage a sense of self-responsibility and self-autonomy for young people at risk of becoming offenders.

The over all winning team, ‘Operation Bustag’, was presented with the Problem Solving Award and a cheque for £10,000 to reinvest to support crime reduction activity at the TOCU.

The Problem Solving Award, a collaboration between the Metropolitan Police Authority, Metropolitan Police Service and the Safer London Foundation, celebrates initiatives that develop problem oriented policing techniques – in essence projects that are responsive to local needs, are people focused and address the causes of crime, not just the consequences. The projects are conceived and put into practice in partnership between local police and communities.

Richard Sumray, MPA member leading on problem oriented policing, said:

“The MPA was delighted to see so many practical and highly effective projects entered into the Problem Solving Award this year, and on behalf of the Authority I offer my congratulations to the winners. Once again they have set a high standard for next year’s entrants to be judged by.

“We firmly believe problem oriented policing can make a significant contribution to reducing criminality and anti-social behaviour across the capital. By encouraging the adoption of innovative, partnership projects we intend to reduce the fear of crime and make our communities safer environments to live and work in.”

Tony Shepherd, Chief Executive of the Safer London Foundation, said:

“The Safer London Foundation is delighted that so many projects entered this year’s Problem Solving Award. The three winning entries demonstrate that strong partnership orientated policing is an effective way to tackle local problems and improve engagement.

“The SLF is making a difference in neighbourhoods across London. It is one of the few charities dedicated to and focussed on making London the safest major city in the world. We recently distributed £175,000 to community initiatives to combat gun, knife and violent crimes. As well as funding local and London-wide projects we also offer volunteering and mentoring provided by our corporate business and public sector supporters.”

Tim Godwin, Assistant Commissioner Territorial Policing, said:

“These awards illustrate the variety of measures that have been implemented across the MPS in order to promote safer communities. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the winning teams, whose initiatives are having an impact on anti-social behaviour in London.”

Notes to editors

1. Inaugurated in January 2006, the Problem Solving Award recognises the achievements of partnership projects between the police and local communities to reduce crime and disorder. The award is a collaboration between the Metropolitan Police Authority, the Metropolitan Police Service and the Safer London Foundation, the independent charity that aims to reduce crime, promote community cohesion and develop safer neighbourhoods through innovative community led crime reduction projects.

2. Operation Bustag: 1st place

Operation Bustag has been addressing Criminal Damage to the London Bus Network for the past two years. Damage to the network is calculated to cause losses of £10,000,000 a year to the bus operators, inconveniences many of the 6,000,000 passenger journeys each day and increases the fear of crime experienced by some individuals.

The biggest complaint from all of the bus operating companies was the level of Criminal Damage that they were suffering, the time taken to report it and more specifically the perceived lack of police response.

People’s perceptions of crime and personal security are strongly effected by Graffiti and Vandalism on the buses, and also impacts on the levels of crime experienced on the network.

Analysis of the crime reporting information system indicated a relatively low level of reporting by the bus companies in comparison to the number of offences they were experiencing. Operation Bustag set out with the objective to find out why, and discovered that bus companies believed it took far to long to report the numerous incidents of criminal damage and that there was a widely held perception that the police were far too busy to investigate incidents.

In response, a dedicated unit was set up to tackle these problems. The unit provided a dedicated point of contact for all of London’s bus operating companies; initiated a standardised method of reporting criminal damage; raised awareness of CCTV evidential procedures through training; organised educational visits to promote crime prevention among school children; and gathered intelligence and identified target offenders, disseminating this information to partnership agencies with whom regular meetings were held.

As a result of Operation Bustag the reporting of criminal damage increased by over 109%, the number of people accused of criminal damage on buses rose by 161% (comparing 2003/04 figures to 2005/06 figures), the clear up rate for Criminal Damage tripled in some areas and in its first 23 months the project identified and arrested over 1000 individuals.

3. ‘CoP (Community or Police) Cards’: 2nd place

Through various local sources it was becoming clear that local enforcement activity against anti-social behaviour, whilst dealing with community concerns, had in fact alienated the Chessinton (Kingston upon Thames) Safer Neighbourhoods team in the eyes of some young people.

Public meetings over a period of two years identified the issue of young people and anti-social behaviour as the number one concern for local residents and businesses alike. Specifically, the community highlighted the belief that there was nothing for young people to do. Successful police and partnership efforts to deal with community concerns through enforcement and innovative initiatives were achieving a considerable reduction in reported crime and disorder. Between April 2005 and April 2006 there was a 16% reduction on the previous 12 months totals of notified crime. However, this appeared to have brought the Safer Neighbourhoods team into conflict with some young people.

It was also apparent that whilst dealing effectively with problem groups and individuals over a period of time there always seemed to be others moving up the ladder and attaching themselves to already established gangs replacing the ones that moved on or had just grown up.

Therefore the Safer Neighbourhoods team felt that they needed to look further down the chain to the younger generation who, if not successfully engaged, could go on to add to the issues being highlighted by the community.

It was clear that in order to regain the lasting trust and support of young people living in the area we needed to promote positive activities and participation in self-development.

Analysis of problems in the area highlighted major concerns, including: a constant stream of 11-year-olds coming to police notice every year; 67 youths identified as members of distinct gangs; and the perception that “there is nothing for the kids to do in Chessington.”

In response the local police worked with council departments, sports clubs and schools to design the ‘CoP Card’. The initiative had three key goals: to improve engagement and familiarisation with the local police to address the ‘alienation issue’; to encourage youth participation in a wide range of out of school hours activities; and to help break the cycle of youths joining gangs and becoming involved in anti-social behaviour at an early age.

Every 11-year old pupil in Chessington’s primary schools (221 pupils) was given a Card and set the task of collecting photo stickers depicting the Safer Neighbourhoods team and others to show that they belonged to, or had joined, a club, sports team/activity or the Library. A unique website for the borough’s youths (www.younglivin.org.uk) gave clues on a special “CoP Card” page as to where officers could be found on a daily basis, whether at sports or youth clubs, the library or other locations. The winning class got a free day out at Chessington World of Adventures and gift vouchers.

Evaluation was conducted through an analysis of the stickers collected at the end of the Scheme plus monitoring hits on the website. The number of youths identified as members of distinct gangs fell from 67 to 15 and not one of the 221 ‘CoP Card’ holders had received a youth letter, joined a gang or entered the criminal justice system. The most recent mapping exercise (Sept 06) also showed a huge reduction in community concerns.

The initiative cost only £350 (printing of cards and stickers), secured through the Crime and Disorder reduction Partnership and younglivin website. In 2007 a new card is to be developed to target the next generation of 11-yr-olds.

4. ‘COP (Community Orientated Policing) Leadership Course’: 3rd place

The ‘COP (Community Orientated Policing) Leadership Course’ emanated from the Tower Hamlets Partnership Anti Social Behaviour Action Group, formed to achieve the partnership objective of reducing anti-social behaviour in the borough.

Tower Hamlets is the fourth most deprived Borough in the country and has a very high young population. Anti-social behaviour is a serious problem: in 2005, 80 ASBOs and 85 ABCs were issued in the Borough. Tower Hamlets Partnership was concerned by the continuing problem of young people becoming involved in both anti-social behaviour and gangs.

Additionally, the police wanted to promote a career in the service to help it become more representative of the diverse population in borough.

The Tower Hamlets Partnership commissioned the Metropolitan Police to initiate a course to respond to these objectives. Key local agencies referred individuals to the course and gave feedback on changes in behaviour following the course. The local authority also provided financial support and lecturers for some of the citizenship elements.

The course was designed to give the individuals an insight into the problems caused by offending and the opportunity to make a decision to alter behaviour patterns. In utlising a leadership course, it was hoped that the young people participating would be given the tools to achieve greater self-autonomy and self-responsibility in controlling their own behaviour and walking away from peer pressure situations that appeared to the Partnership as being at the heart of ‘gang-related’ offences.

The course consisted of seminars relating to citizenship, leadership, gangs, drugs, the criminal justice system and dangerous weapons as well as a mobile prison visit and an interactive custody and court workshop (at Hendon Police Training Centre). The course included first aid and careers counselling. teambuilding exercises were carried out at an outward bounds centre and at the Specialist Operations Training Centre. The programme ended in a formal graduation. Follow-up opportunities were offered to participants.

A team self-evaluation took place after each of the three pilot courses enabling the project to be adapted. The Met seconded an external person to evaluate the course. The School Officers embarked on feedback from the referral bodies gathering qualitative data from the schools whilst producing a quantifiable data relating to whether participants managed to stay out of trouble after the course.

The Schools Officers devised a measure of testing whether the course has been effective by comparing the numbers on the course who had been known to the police through their intelligence systems.

Of the 69 course participants, 17 had entries on police data bases (PNC and CRIMINT) in the 6-month period before their course. A three-month check afterwards showed only 2 of the original 17 participants had come to police notice since their course. This indicated a significant change in behaviour of those participants involved in the more serious offending range.

Seven COP participants jointed (and regularly attend) the Volunteer Cadet Corps since finishing the course. This represents just over 10% of all COP participants.

This funding level has just been agreed to cover two years, 06/07 and 07/08, which will make it a 12-course project with a £120,000 funded budget. This will allow 240 at risk young people to attend and benefit from the course.

In addition to this, the Football Association has agreed in principle to become involved in the scheme as part of its partnership agreement with the Metropolitan Police in Tower Hamlets. They will be looking at leadership through the concept of sports within the course programme.

5. The award was presented as part of a one day ‘Safer London Problem Solving Conference’, attended by police and partner organisations, on 21 February 2007 at the Britannia International Hotel, Canary Wharf.

6. The MPA Scrutiny on Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs), published in January 2003, included a recommendation to develop the use of problem oriented policing across London (Recommendation 28:The MPA recommends the problem oriented policing model as good practice for boroughs and CDRPs. It recommends that the MPS evaluate how the model works in those boroughs where it has been implemented and considers how it can be developed for use in all London boroughs). The scrutiny report is available at: www.mpa.gov.uk/reports/cdrpscrutiny.htm

7. Formed in 2005, the Safer London Foundation helps to reduce crime in London by supporting and funding innovative community-based crime reduction projects. It works in partnership with the police, government and business to make London's neighbourhoods safer places to live, work and visit. SLF corporate volunteers and mentors work across the capital's diverse communities, providing a unique and valuable link between the people of London and its businesses. More information about the Safer London Foundation is available at: www.saferlondonfoundation.org.uk

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