Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Mark Boleat, Alderman Alison Gowman, Alderman Ian Luder, and Deputy Richard Regan.

There were none.

To agree the public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 18 January 2013 (copy attached).

The public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 18 January 2013 were approved.

To receive the public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 22 January 2013 (copy attached).

The public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 22 January 2013 were received.

Report of the Town Clerk (copy attached).

The Committee received a report of the Town Clerk highlighting those outstanding actions identified in the minutes from previous meetings.

The Committee received a report of the Commissioner providing an update on recent community engagement activities, community priorities and forthcoming events.

The Commander made reference to the restructure of Wards Policing teams, which he explained were no longer geographically based but instead now divided into separate teams for residential, business and street engagement. Positive feedback had been received so far, particularly from residents in the Mansell Street area. In response to Members’ questions, he clarified that whilst there were no longer any specifically dedicated “ward” officers, particular officers would of course continue to work in particular areas to ensure their links with and knowledge of areas were put to best use. With regard to engagement with businesses, he explained that officers from the team made visits to meet and engage with companies and that the Force also had a communications network in place allowing them to contact over 4500 SMEs in City, who also received regular newsletters from the police keeping them up to date with the latest information.

The Commander also made reference to an event held within the last week which had been aimed at engaging with hard to reach groups, which had been very successful with over 250 representatives from the City’s Muslim, Sikh and Hindu communities in attendance. The Force’s intention was now to build on this event and maintain good engagement with these communities.

The Chairman noted the section updating on work with the Safer City Partnership and, as Chair of the Partnership advised the Committee that he was currently seeking to expand the group to involve other interested agencies, for example the UK Border Agency. He asked Members to inform the Town Clerk should they be aware of any others bodies which could play a useful role with the Safer City Partnership.

The EDHR Manager provided an update on the latest developments with the Force, advising that Equality Impact Assessment training had now been provided to all key Force personnel. This will mean that the quality of the equality impact assessments will improve. There also is additional guidance provided on the Force intranet.

With regard to training for Members, the EDHR Manager advised that she was looking to hold a session on 5 April, likely over lunch, focusing on the impact of fraud on vulnerable communities. Members would be contacted with specific information in due course, and the possibility of running further sessions in future, including one covering custody suites, was also being explored.

The Chairman stated that members of the Police Committee with their lead officers will need to produce their annual report for their Special Interest Areas (SIA) for 2012-13. The SIA scheme enables Members of the Police Committee to engage with officers in key areas of police work. The annual report provides the highlights in each of these areas over the past 12 months and outlines future plans and arrangements for each area.

Report of the Commissioner (copy attached).

The Committee considered a report of the Commissioner presenting the proposed 2013-16 Policing Plan for the City of London.

The Chairman of the Police Committee asked the Chairman of the Performance

& Resources Management Sub-Committee to provide a brief summary of the

decisions made at the recent Sub-Committee. The Chairman stated that Sub-

Committee had reviewed the Force’s paper on the HMIC VFM analysis and had

revisited the Policing Plan performance targets.

The Sub-Committee Chairman intimated that the Members had asked for more

comparative information to ensure that City Of London Police services are

delivering VFM. Members asked for more work to be done on justifying the

Force’s uniqueness and on explaining why the City of London Police was such

a high spender in many areas particularly in terms of support service functions.

Members also wanted to ensure that all relevant cost profiles had a City First

figure e.g. supplies and services as a percentage of the workforce costs. The

Force had agreed to produce a further VFM report for the next Performance &

Resource Management Sub-Committee.

The Assistant Commissioner outlined the Policing Plan challenge process with

the running of two member workshops and the presentation of the plan and

targets at the Performance & Resources Management Sub-Committee. He

advised that the Force had reflected on the discussions and would be providing

an additional victim based target as follows “To ensure at least 85% or more

crime victims are satisfied with the way the police has handled their case”.

A Member suggested that any revisions to the Policing Plan should be tracked

and Members should be given frequent updates (as they cannot always attend

all of the meetings). A Member asked why there was not more on traffic

management in the Policing Plan as it is a major issue for the City.

The

Report of the Commissioner (copy attached).

The Committee received a report of the Commissioner detailing the National Policing Improvement Agency’s “Next Steps” initiative and outlining the findings of a review in to the Force’s implementation of the initiative.

The Commander advised that the “Next Steps” exercise was usually for those Forces who had been placed in special measures, whereas we self-referred to benchmark. The Force received a good report. There was no disproportionate use and many of our packages are best practice.

The EDHR Manager commended the Force for putting itself forward for the initiative, noting that other Forces were often guilty of the illegal use of stop and search and that it was good to see the City Police’s position as a transparent organisation utilising best practice reinforced.

RESOLVED: That the report be received and its content noted.

There were no questions.

Performance and Resource Management Sub Committee Minutes

The public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 8 February 2013 were received.

External Member Selection Panel Minutes

The notes of a meeting held on 11 February 2013 were received.

The Chairman thanked the current external Members for all their contributions to date, adding that the Committee was very grateful for their time. However, it was clear that the Committee had a duty to undertake the recruitment process in as transparent a manner as possible and reach out to the wider community.

MOTION - That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of the Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

Item No.                                                                     Exempt Paragraphs

                   #                                                                                                      #

                   #                                                                                                      #

                   #                                                                                                      #

RESOLVED: - That under Section 100 A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act as follows:-

Item No                                                           Exempt Paragraphs

10a                                                                                  3

10b                                                                              2 & 5

11                                                                                    7

To agree the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 18 January 2013 (copy attached).

The non-public minutes of the meeting held on 18 January 2013 were approved.

To receive the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 22 January 2013 (copy attached).

The non-public minutes of the meeting held on 22 January 2013 were received.

Commissioner to be heard.

The Commissioner was heard concerning on-going and successful operations undertaken by the City of London Police.

There were no questions.

There were no urgent items.