Agenda item

Report of the Commissioner (copy attached).

The Sub-Committee received a report of the Commissioner summarising the performance against the Policing Plan 2012-15 for the period between April 2012 and March 2013. 

The Chairman stated that the Force’s performance in the 2012-13 financial year had been a successful one – with all 18 policing plan targets achieved. While crime reduction continued to be a challenge, the target was still met. It was discussed that with the implementation of City First Change Programme there were still some changes that will take time to be fully implemented.

The Assistant Commissioner stated that the City of London Police (CoLP) would remain focused on the target of a 95% response rate to 999 calls within 12 minutes (97.4% response rate achieved). In response to a Member’s query, the Assistant Commissioner stated he would obtain the average call response time and stated he would consider analysing the call response time between the MET switchboard and the CoLP to improve response times, for next year’s Policing Plan.

The Force were continuing work to reduce the levels of victim based violent crime and in 2012-13 had seen a reduction compared to 2011-12, but this is slightly above the three year average. The Chairman requested that all future performance reports should provide 3 years of data for each indicator to enable Members to look at trends and patterns.

An increase in victim based theft from April 2012 was also a concern raised by Members, particularly with regard to instances of non-dwelling burglaries which had increased by 26.1%. In response to this rise it was explained that the CoLP had deployed dedicated detectives and the number of non-dwelling burglaries should begin to decline. Historically, non-dwelling burglaries had occurred in multiple occupant spaces which affected more than one business.

Members went through Appendix A of the item and made a number of comments:

Dedicated Ring of Steel patrols - the Chairman expressed concern over a checkpoint at the northern gate of the City that seemed to be unmanned and rundown. The Assistant Commissioner advised that he would investigate the checkpoint but that these were not always staffed because officers were deployed based on risk and threat.

A Member asked how many officers were currently deployed in the City at the moment and the Assistant Commissioner estimated the number at around 15 to 20 officers.

Major Events - Olympic & Paralympic Games iModus survey 2012 - Members were informed that although the response rate was low, this was considered credible by the survey provider, iModus.

Community engagement - the Assistant Commissioner agreed that the Force needs to maintain or even improve the current satisfaction rates for victims of crime and there is a plan to set a higher performance target for 2014-15.

Reduce collisions resulting in injury - a Member advised that the road safety data source would be reviewed for next year as City of London data would be used as opposed to Transport for London data, which is currently collated and compiled for the calendar year end rather than the end of the financial year.

The Chairman stated that the Force needs to be mindful of anti-social behaviour (ASB) and raised resident concerns about noise from clubs and licensed premises.  The Chairman reminded the Force of their pledge in the policing plan 2013-14 that states “the Force will with our partners in the Safer City Partnership tackle anti-social behaviour by using all tools and powers available to us”

The Chairman stated that the Force must continue to ensure that the policing plan targets are both stretching and challenging and help drive Force improvement. The Assistant Commissioner explained that with the loss of additional police officers in the coming year, any target will be a challenging target to achieve. With police officer reductions, there may be some impact on services and these will have to be taken into account.

RECEIVED.