The Bradford East Area Co-ordinator will present a report (Document “K”) which gives an update on some of the work undertaken by the Bradford East Area Neighbourhood Policing Team and an overview of the Bradford East Constituency Performance Data.

Recommended –

(1)  That Bradford East Area Committee notes the work undertaken by the Bradford East Neighbourhood Policing Team from April 2017 to July 2017 that contributed to addressing priorities within the ward plans for the Bradford East Area.

(2)  That the Bradford East Area Committee notes the positive partnership working that has been established with Elected Members, Council Officers, community organisations, volunteers and residents within the Bradford East Area.

(Louise Williams – 01274 431066)  

The Bradford East Area Co-ordinator presented a report (Document “K”) which gave an update on some of the work undertaken by the Bradford East Area Neighbourhood Policing Team and an overview of the Bradford East Constituency Performance Data.

Inspector Collins of the Bradford East Neighbourhood Policing Team attended the meeting and gave a detailed presentation in respect of the information contained in Document “K”, highlighting in particular her plans for the development of the team. She outlined the team structure and informed Members that there were plans to recruit more staff. It was noted that the Police had begun to hold “days of action” in the area and would be holding two per ward per year. These events had already been very well received. She stressed that she wanted meetings to plan action to be more current than at present so that issues could be dealt with at the time of their occurrence.

She also explained the crime figures contained in the report and the reasons for the apparent increase in crime, which was the result of a change to crime data reporting, an increase in reports of historical crime and the effects of austerity on the community. 

She highlighted positive data in respect of downward trends in robbery and burglary which were the result of work on offender management and vehicle patrols during the evening.

She advised Members that the number of Neighbourhood Watch groups in the Bradford East area was low and that she wanted to increase those.

She explained the process of dealing with anti-social behaviour from an initial warning letter to the use of criminal behaviour orders and stressed that her intention was to dealt with such behaviour before it reached the final stages of intervention.

She also explained the use of mobile data devices such as smart phones and body worn video in increasing the efficiency of the Police as the requirement to return to base to input data was much diminished.

Members questioned Inspector Collins in some details on her presentation, including questions on:-

·         How many calls were received in respect of residential children’s homes and what was the strategy for dealing with such calls ?

·         Were calls more likely to be received in respect of looked after children rather than children living with their families ?

·         What was the strategy in respect of fly-tipping and could privately filmed CCTV be used in court ?

·         Did the Police make use of the BD2-10 website ?

·         Was there still an issue of PCSOs being trained but then leaving the service or being moved to other duties ?

·         Was any work being done on hate crime and particularly in respect of new communities and their reluctance to report crime, also was any effort being made to recruit Eastern European PCSOs ?

·         What was being done in respect of drug crime in Bradford East ?

·         What would be done to ensure that the data from this report contributed to a reduction in crime in future ? 

In response, Inspector Collins advised that :-

·         She was currently working to achieve better data in respect of calls regarding residential children’s homes, especially as calls involving children missing from such homes were immediately prioritised and involved a high level of resources. She advised that a new team of officers had been established to work on this issue and confirmed that it was more likely that the Police would receive calls in respect of children in residential care than those living in the family home, mainly in respect of being missing from home.

·         Fly tipping was an issue that was usually dealt with by Council officers rather than the Police and private CCTV was used by the Police for other issues. Inspector Collins undertook to ensure that a conversation was held between her officers and Council staff to try to clarify this issue.

·         The BD2-10 website was monitored regularly and other social media such as twitter was also used.  

·         The current PCSO staff complement was at 30 and was set to increase. All future PCSOs would be aligned to wards and would be patrolling on foot. Inspector  Collins considered their role to be key to operations. It was also noted that skilled PCSOs made good constables which did account for some staff losses but it was hoped that they would return to Bradford East as constables so that their local knowledge and expertise was not lost.

·         Work was currently being undertaken to identify hate crime and to work with community groups, including the recruitment of volunteers from new communities to work alongside the Police.

·         Inspector Collins explained in detail the efforts that were being made to deal with drug crime in Bradford East, including working to gain the confidence of the public to obtain good quality intelligence. The Chair also stressed the need for people to report all their concerns. She advised the meeting that there had been a successful operation in Undercliffe as a result of repeated reports from the public. Inspector Collins concurred with that view and recommended Crime Stoppers as a way of building a bridge between the public and the Police. She undertook to provide a report to a future meeting in respect of drug crime.

·         She also undertook to provide a report on the issue of driving without insurance, although information gathering on that matter was quite problematic.

·         In respect of using this report to enable a future reduction in crime, she explained that a tactical document was produced every two weeks with an interim one produced weekly, both of which informed the work of the Bradford East team. She prioritised the work of the team to be bespoke to the area.

The Chair concluded the discussion by stating how positive she was about the new trial Ward Partnership Team meetings that were being undertaken in three wards. If successful, that process would be rolled out across the area. She also highlighted how well the action days were received by the public. The ward officer also stressed that events for specific issues would be organised in future.      

Resolved –

(1)  That the work undertaken by the Bradford East Neighbourhood Policing Team from April 2017 to July 2017 that contributed to addressing priorities within the ward plans for the Bradford East Area be noted.

(2)  That the positive partnership working that has been established with Elected Members, Council Officers, community organisations, volunteers and residents within the Bradford East Area be noted.

ACTION: Bradford East Area Co-ordinator