Committee will have the opportunity to discuss the work of Lincolnshire Police together with a number of keys areas of police work both operationally and strategically, to enhance member and officer understanding and further promote effective partnership working with Lincolnshire Police.

 

This will enable informed consideration of the issues affecting West Lindsey and enable Members to seek assurance of the work in place to ensure that efforts to reduce crime and promote community safety in West Lindsey are effective.

 

                  Inspector Simon Outen, together with Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Davidson will be in attendance and make short presentations to the Committee, addressing those matters previously identified, and detailed in Appendix A to this agenda. 

 

                  This will be followed by a period of supplementary questioning from the Committee.

 

Committee had the opportunity to discuss the work of Lincolnshire Police together with a number of key areas of Police work both operationally and strategically, to enhance Member and Officer understanding and further promote effective partnership working with Lincolnshire Police.

 

It was hoped this would enable informed consideration of the issues affecting West Lindsey and enable Members to seek assurance of the work in place to ensure that efforts to reduce crime and promote community safety in West Lindsey were effective.

 

Inspector Simon Outen, together with Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Davison were in attendance and made presentations to the Committee, addressing those matters previously identified, and which had been detailed in Appendix A to the agenda. 

 

Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Davison addressed the Committee first, in relation to Integrated Offender Management.  During his presentation he provided an overview of the IOM scheme, and an insight into the volume and profile of the IOM cohort living and / or offending in the West Lindsey area, during which it was noted that

 

•      Assisting Rehabilitation through Collaboration (ARC) was the Lincolnshire approach to Integrated Offender Management. ARC was a multi-agency team committed to the rehabilitation of the most complex and prolific offenders in Lincolnshire. This being the top 2%.

 

•      Clients were selected through police statistical analysis and would have committed 8 offences in the last 12 months regardless of crime type.  Each client would  have an Exit Strategy agreed by all engaging agencies which would be based on the Pathways out of offending.

 

•      The clients progress would be discussed frequently and once each Exit criteria had been achieved they would be de-registered from ARC and managed by generic probation if statutory or signposted to charity agencies for further support if non – statutory.

 

•      ARC currently had a total of 46 clients including those currently in custody.

 

•      Of those, 7 were within West Lindsey and as at 3 November 2016 were in the community, with the majority of the offending being shop thefts.

 

•      It was anticipated that due to the geographical make up of WL there would always be clients in the area similar to those in neighbouring districts such as East Lindsey, North Kesteven, compared to the majority being in Lincoln, especially in the city centre and surrounding area.

 

Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Davison was asked to provide assurance of the effectiveness of measures and partnerships in West Lindsey to achieve long term desistance and advised that ARC had a rejuvenated focus into offender management and was not managing to full capacity yet.  Also as this was a new strategy, performance measurements and evidence for effectiveness were not available at the current time.  The Schemes formal launch was not until 13 December 2016.  Future evidence which would be captured would include, the offending patterns and frequency 12 months prior to adoption, compared to the 12 months after de-registration from ARC, in order to effectively understand the longevity of ARCs involvement and desistance from crime.

 

Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Davison had been asked if there was anything West Lindsey District Council could do to maximise the success of Integrated Offender Management and response indicated that housing was a priority pathway for most ARC clients so enhanced access to housing or a SPOC to provide information regarding housing would be beneficial.    Furthermore, having a West Lindsey representative at every detailed adoption meeting would allow the Police to have a more holistic view of clients and a more informed and realistic Exit Plan.  The Home Options Team Manager undertook to liaise further with Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Davison regarding this matter

 

It was also confirmed that IOM performance information could be shared with Elected Members at each of Inspector Outen’s future updates, including West Lindsey specific information.

 

In response to further questions asked by the Committee, Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Davison advised that clients would spend a maximum of 9 months on the programme, this was a change from the old scheme and in order to make best use of resources.  Funding for the programme was not time limited, as resources had been aligned.  Prevention of crime was a priority and as such had been invested in, the programme was planned to be a long term one.  As previously advised the formal launch of the scheme was not until December 2016 and therefore its effectiveness could not be demonstrated at this stage.  Members did however note that the average offender signposted to the Scheme currently cost around £160,000 to the system due to their offending.

 

Members questioned whether a 9 month time limit to the Scheme was long enough, considering that offenders were likely to have been offending throughout their lifetime.  Chris Davison confirmed that this had been the cause of much debate in drawing up the Scheme.  Intense work would be undertaken with Clients during the 9 month period, after which time they would continue to receive support but this would be through generalist offender management.  During this period some of the drives and causes for committing crime, such as drugs, would be intensely addressed, aiming to ensure success was more likely achieved.

 

Members suggested that it may be useful to identify those children living in families with a person subject to an integrated offender management order, in order that separate work could be undertaken with the young people and / or their school, as a further preventative measure.  Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Davison welcomed the suggestion and undertook to give this further consideration. 

 

Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Davison was thanked for his informative presentation and Officers undertook to circulate the presentation slides

 

Inspector Outen then addressed the Committee, firstly to respond to those matters previously identified, and which had been detailed in Appendix A to the agenda, including: -

 

·         THRIVE

·         Rural Crime

·         Future Capacity, Structure and Local Priorities

·         Hate Crime

·         Customers with Arrest Warrants

·         Dangerous Dogs

·         Illegal Eviction

·         ATM Thefts

·         Market Rasen House

·         Street Lighting Changes

 

And secondly to provide his usual 6 month update on crime and policing issues across the District.

 

In opening Inspector Outen confirmed a briefing note, to provide an overview of the THRIVE methodology, had been provided to the Administrator, this also contained information to enhance knowledge and understanding of the way in which calls to Lincolnshire Police were assessed and the subsequent responses that could be expected. 

 

Officers undertook to circulate this internally

 

Members noted that since THRIVEs inception response times had been affected.  THRIVE had professionalised call handling and provided a model for judging the level of response required and was rationale based.  This had resulted in an incident resolution team being introduced, and the role of the team was shared with the Committee.  A diary system had also now been introduced, allocating appointment times which had overcome back logs and provided a better service to the customer.  THRIVE had seen incident attendance reduced by 12% and a slight reduction in urgent calls.

 

Regarding ASB incidents, there had been a total of 1337 incidents within West Lindsey, this was down 3%.  Across Lincolnshire this was estimated to be 12,000 plus.  A recent audit had found that Lincolnshire Police was effective, but that it had limited scope to make further efficiencies without affecting service provision. Inspector Outen considered working relations within West Lindsey and amongst its partner organisations were good and effective.  The ASBRAC partnership was working well.

 

Turning to Rural Crime, Inspector Outen shared details of the “Up Snowden” initiative currently underway.  He was also encouraging greater use of the Lincolnshire Alert sign up and considered this tool had a much greater scope for use.   It was acknowledged that the nature and size of Lincolnshire would always prove problematic.

 

InsepctorOuten was unable to offer further information on the Deputy PCCs role in tackling rural crime.

 

It was acknowledged that PCSO attendance at Parish Council meetings was very valuable and Inspector Outen indicated that once PCSO staffing levels had returned this could be further looked at. 

 

The various agencies which worked in partnership to tackle rural crime were shared with the Committee.

 

Addressing the Committee’s questions regarding capacity, structure and local priorities, Inspector Outen advised that staffing levels were slightly reduced at the moment, and the reasons for this were outlined.  January’s intake had yet to be posted.  The current level of staffing was shared with Members.  It was noted that Lincolnshire Police also had support from regional resource, such as armed response and MOPs.  The role of PCSO had not significantly changed but it had evolved with a very strong community focus.  A ministerial visit was expected in December 2016 to discuss funding for Lincolnshire Police.  PCSOs were funded by Lincolnshire Police. 24 PCSOs were planned to cover leavers and it was likely that reserves would have to be used to fund this.   Short term this was a “risk” as there was no backfill for the interim period.  It was confirmed there was sufficient overnight cover.

 

In relation to Hate Crime, Inspector Outen confirmed the crime was very under reported.  The Police Force worked hard to encourage reporting and ran a number of initiatives.  It was noted the levels were very low in West Lindsey and whilst Brexit had seen cases rises sharply across a number of areas of Lincolnshire, this had not been the case for West Lindsey.  Inspector Outen was proud that West Lindsey had demonstrated itself to be a stable community. 

 

By way of assurance, Inspector Outen confirmed that Hate Crime was dealt with at the highest level.  There had been 15 incidents, resulting in 10 crimes, third party reporting could be undertaken using report.org.uk and the Council was encouraged to promote this.

 

It was also confirmed that the reporting of responses to hate crime could be shared with Elected Members at each of Inspector Outen’s future updates, including West Lindsey specific information.

 

Regarding Customers with Arrest Warrant , the process should Lincolnshire Police be aware of a pre-arranged appointment with West Lindsey District Council, with a customer who is wanted by the Police, was outlined.   Inspector Outen advised when such incidents may occur and for what types of offences. Council staff would not be put at risk.

 

Regarding illegal eviction, Inspector Outen confirmed he would welcome working in partnership with the District Council to develop a proactive partnership response to raise awareness of tenant rights and illegal eviction, with a view to reducing the risk of future incidents.  Police knowledge in this area was arguably limited together with their involvement to date.  The offer of training to  Police colleagues on tenant rights and illegal eviction in the private rented sector, to enable future cases of illegal eviction to be recognised and managed in partnership was welcomed and would be of value to PCSOs also.

 

Market Rasen House had been the source of a number of complaints, this had been rising to an unacceptable level.  However a heavy handed approach had been taken with the operators and they had responded, incidents continued to decrease and its residents were trying to build bridges with the local community through a number of initiatives and events. 

 

It was also confirmed that specific updates on issues linked to Market Rasen House could be shared with elected members at each of Inspector Outen’s future updates, including West Lindsey specific information.

 

Finally, regarding street lighting Inspector Outen indicated it was too early assess whether the changes to street lighting in Lincolnshire had had any impact on the levels of crime in West Lindsey.  He made reference to a document on the College of Policing website which may be of interest.  Anecdotally, dark places made crime easier to commit and affected the perceptions of a community, but there was no real data currently.

 

Councillor Young and other Committee Members outlined the concern the lack of lighting was causing the community and the difficulties emergency services were experiencing.  Communities needed to be reassured that crime levels were relatively low.

 

Inspector Outen re-iterated there was no data available to date to assess the impact, he acknowledged that perception played a key role, but West Lindsey was comparatively a safe place. 

 

The session concluded with a 6 month update on crimes across the District during which the following was noted: -

 

·         Burglary was slightly up

·         Vehicle Crime had seen a significant increase, with a current spike in incidents concerning transit vans

·         Violence with Injury was up and this was a national trend

·         Criminal Damage had seen a large increase

·         Anti Social Behaviour incidents had seen a downward trend.

 

There were some anomalies with the data and these were discussed.  Crime definitions continued to change also which made comparison difficult   Some Members indicated they would find the level of information provided to parishes of assistance, but the difficulties this presented on a District Wide basis were outlined.

 

Inspector Outen was thanked for his presentation

 

The Meeting took a short comfort break and re-adjourned at 8.27 pm.