EODB Performance management information

ps/01/06
26 January 2006
MPA briefing paper

Author: Gemma Walters, Planning and Performance Unit, MPA

This briefing paper has been prepared to inform members and staff. It is not a committee report and no decisions are required.

Summary

1. The report aims to supply committee members with information relevant to equal opportunities and diversity, and highlight any emerging trends. The Equal Opportunities & Diversity Board (EODB) on 3 February 2006 is focusing on the age diversity strand, specifically crimes against older people.

2. The main trends to be noted are:

Crimes against older people

3. Distraction burglary is defined as any crime where falsehood, trick or distraction is used on an occupant of a dwelling to gain, or try to gain, access to the premises to commit burglary. This type of crime is most commonly committed against older people.

4. Latest MPS data for April to October 2005 shows that 1,596 or 87% of all victims of distraction burglary are in the age group 60 and above, with 1,110 or 70% of those victims being female. When comparing the data with the same 7 months in 2004 there has been a 18% reduction overall in the number of victims, and a 19% reduction in victims in the 60 and above age group.

5. Victims of racist crime recorded between April and October 2005 are more likely to be aged between 21-40. The age group of 60 and above only accounts for 3.5% of all victims of racist crime. The MPS has recorded a 12% reduction in the number of victims recorded year on year, but the proportion in each age group remains the same.

6 Victims of homophobic crime recorded between April and October 2005 are more likely to be aged between 21-40, the same age groups as Racist crime. The age group of 60 and above only accounts for 2% of all victims of homophobic crime. The MPS has recorded an 8% increase in the number of victims recorded year on year. The proportion of victims for each age group has remained similar, with a slight rise in the number of victims aged 11-20.

7. Domestic violence victims recorded by the MPS between April and October 2005 are most likely to be aged between 21-30. A small proportion of victims are aged 60 and above, a similar pattern to other hate crime categories. Despite a small increase in victims recorded year on year, the proportion of victims in each age group remains the same.

8. Crimes most affecting people aged 60 and above tend to be theft & handling, specifically theft from a motor vehicle and other theft, which may include removal of articles from places open to the public, or theft or unauthorised taking of conveyance other than motor or cycle. Nearly 50% of all victims of crime aged 60 and above have been victim to theft and handling stolen goods.

9. The next highest category affecting persons aged 60 and above is burglary, with nearly a quarter of all victims having either their dwelling of non-dwelling burgled. Other crimes include criminal damage, specifically to dwelling and motor vehicles.

Hate crime

10. There have been 123 homicide crimes recorded between April and November 2005, 10 fewer than the same 8 months in 2004 (includes 13 homicides in July attributed to the Terrorist Attacks). 109 homicides have been detected between April and November 2005, 15 fewer than for the same period in 2004. The detection rate stands at 89%.

11. The detection rate for rape offences stands at 30.6% this financial year to date. This is a reduction of 2.7 percentage points on last financial year and below the rape detection rate target for 2005-06 of 38%.

12. The sanction detection rate for rape offences is 26.2%, an increase on the same period last year of 2.4 percentage points. The MPS are nearer to the sanction detection rate target for 2005-06, which is 27%.

13. Female rape victims make up 93.9% of all victims of recorded rape offences. The actual number of female rape victims recorded has increased by 12.8% year on year, and male victims recorded has increased by 20.2% (113 victims compared to 94), indicating that although still the minority, male victims reporting rape offences are increasing.

14. The percentage of recorded BME victims of rape has increased, rising from 36.0% between April 04 and November 04 to the current level of 40.1%.

15. The number of racist offences recorded in the first eight months of 2005-06 has dropped by 9.1% when comparing with the same eight months the previous year.

16. The proportion of female victims of racist crime has reduced by 7.2 percentage point’s year on year with the current level of 41.6% showing slight gender disproportionality. The percentage of BME victims of racist crime has increased, with 79.6% of BME victims compared to 75.0% in the previous year.

17. The current detection rate for racist crime is 36%, currently meeting the 2005-06 target. The sanction detection rate for racist crimes is much lower, at 20.2%, just below the 21% target set for the 2005-06 financial year.

18. The number of domestic violence crimes recorded has increased by 2.8% year on year. The sanction detection rate has also increased, rising by 7.5 percentage point to 25.4% recorded between April and November 2005. The total detection rate for the current financial year 2005-06 is 60%.

19. The proportion of recorded victims of domestic violence that are female remains at a similar rate of 79.2%, with the actual number of female victims increasing by 5.2% year on year.

20. The proportion of recorded BME victims of domestic violence is 46.0%, with an increase of actual numbers year on year of 20.1%, a higher increase than domestic violence offences as a whole.

21. There has been a 2.9% increase in homophobic crimes recorded between April and November 2005 when comparing with the same period the previous year. Latest data available shows the proportion of victims of homophobic crime who are female increasing from 19.0% to 24.9%, with a 34.4% or 63 victim increase in the actual number of female victims recorded.

22. The proportion of homophobic victims who are BME has also increased, rising from 13.6% to 26.2%. The current sanction detection rate for homophobic crime is 17.6%, a slight rise from the rate recorded for the same period last year.

23. The MPS have recently provided the MPA with data on victims of transgender crime. The number of victims recorded between April and November 2005 is 63 compared to 46 recorded in the same period in 2004.

24. The recording of faith hate crimes in London has increased significantly this financial year compared to last. There were a large amount of faith hate crimes recorded in July and August 2005, directly relating to the terrorist attacks, that have significantly attributed to the increase. The latest level of faith hate crime is 173% or 418 crimes higher than those recorded between April and November 2004.

25. The combination of faith hate crime and racist crime shows 415 offences or 4.4% reduction in crime year on year. This is a better indication of the real picture as the recording of faith hate crime has become more accurate in the past 12 months compared to the previous year.

Strength

Police officer

26. Police officer strength has increased by 1.4% to the end of December 2005, reaching 31,106. The percentage of police officers that are female is 19.6% and 7.3% are from BME communities.

27. The number of police officers at sergeant and above ranks has increased at a greater rate than total strength. There are 8.6% more officers at these ranks this year than last. Despite the increase, the percentage of male to female officers in this group is disproportional. There are 15.3% female officers at sergeant and above ranks as a proportion of all female officers compared to 28% of male officers as a proportion of all male officers.

28. BME officers at sergeant and above ranks as a percentage of all BME officers are 13.6%. This percentage is significantly disproportional to the percentage of non-BME officers at the same rank (26.5%).

29. The recruitment drive to increase the strength of female and BME officers will have an impact in time on the number of officers that have reached these higher ranks.

30. At the EODB meeting in July it was requested that a full breakdown of BME officers at all ranks would be useful information for the committee. There are 2,259 BME officers at the MPS at the end of December. Of those officers, 73% or 1,645 are police constables, 14% or 308 are detective constables, 7% or 148 are sergeants, 3% or 65 are detective sergeants, 2% or 37 are inspectors and 1% or 26 are detective inspectors. There are 12 chief inspectors and 10 detective chief inspectors. There are 4 BME superintendents, 2 BME chief superintendents and 2 BME officers at commander and above rank.

Police staff

31. Police staff strength has risen by 4.5% year on year with 13,736 staff at the end of December 2005. The proportion of female staff is higher than male staff at 59.1% and 40.9% respectively; where as 22.1% of police staff is from BME communities.

32. PCSO strength has risen by 8.6% year on year with the current strength at 2,052. The percentage of female PCSO strength is 32.4%, where as BME PCSO staff makes up 37.1% of total PCSO strength.

Recruitment

33. The number of police officers joining the MPS is relatively low in comparison to strength, with 967 officers joining in 8 months. Of those officers joining, 28.2% were female and 13.2% Black & minority ethnic. Both proportions are higher than the current total strength figures.

34. The number of police staff joining the MPS has decreased by 35.7% year on year with 1,058 persons joining at the end of December 2005. The proportion of female and BME staff joining is similar to the current strength (55.5% and 24.1% respectively).

35. There has been a slower intake of PCSOs this year compared to last, with only 245 PCSOs joining this year compared to 596 in the same period last year. Of those staff joining, 47% were female and 28.5% BME staff.

36. Latest data available states that MPS Recruitment project that 318 new female police officer recruits will join by the end of March 2006, 33.5% of the planned number of new recruits, 7.5% below the recruitment target of 41%.

37. Latest data available states that MPS Recruitment project that 181 black and minority ethnic police officer recruits will join by the end of March 2006, 19.1% of the planned number of new recruits (revised to 948); 9.9% below the recruitment target of 29%.

Retention

38. Retention rates have remained high, with the overall police officer rate of 95.7%. Female officer retention rate is higher than male officers, with rates of 96.8% and 95.5% respectively. The retention rates for BME officers and non-BME officers are 99.7% and 95.6% respectively.

39. Police staff retention rates are slightly lower, but still remain at a high level. The overall police staff retention rate is 92.6% with female and male retention rates of 93.2% and 91.8% respectively. The retention rate for BME staff is 96.7% and non-BME staff 92.3%.

Stop and Search

40. The number of stop & searches recorded in the past 12 months has increased by 8.8% year on year. There are currently 36 stop & searches per 1,000 residents recorded in London. The number of stop & searches varies by ethnicity groups. 24 stop & searches recorded per 1,000 White population, 105 per 1,000 Black population and 33 per 1,000 Asian population. Stop & searches recorded for most groups show a year on year increase, with the largest for Asian persons, increasing by 13.4%.

41. The proportion of stop & searches of male persons is 94.4% (242,672 rolling year), with just 12,717 women being stopped & searched.

42. The total stop and search arrest rate has remained at a similar rate year on year. The arrest rate for White persons is 11% and Black persons 11.6%. The overall arrest rate currently stands at 11.3% to November 2005.

MPA personnel data

43. The age spread of personnel working at the MPA is relatively even for each category. Of the current strength of 90 full time people the greatest number are aged between 36 and 40, with 41 to 45 and 51 to 55 being the next highly populated groups. There are currently 10 people aged 56 to 60 and two aged 61 to 65.

44. Female staff represents 46% of the total workforce and BME staff represent 46%.

45. 11% of the MPA have identified themselves as having a disability (10 staff).

46. Female staff holds 39% of management posts within the MPA and BME staff hold 40% of management posts.

47. Since 2003/4 the opportunity has been taken to give existing staff and new recruits the opportunity to complete the monitoring revised form which includes categories for faith or belief and sexual orientation. Not all staff or new recruits availed themselves of this opportunity and the small numbers that have done so have not been further sub-divided in order to avoid the possibility of individuals being identified. Those that did complete the form did not form a statistically significant proportion of the overall number of staff and no conclusions can be drawn from the responses or lack of responses.

48. Of those that did respond, 42 identified themselves as heterosexual and nine identified themselves as lesbian, gay or bisexual. Twenty six staff identified themselves as followers of Christianity, three as followers of Hinduism, three as followers of Islam, one each as followers of Sikhism and Buddhism and three as having no religion.

Race and equality impact

49. All equality and diversity information has been incorporated within this report.

Financial implications

50. None.

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