Agenda item

Report of the Commissioner of Police.

The Board considered a report of the Commissioner of the City of London Police summarising the quantitative and qualitative performance of the Force as the National Lead Force for Fraud during the period April – November 2016/17.

The Commander was heard in support of the report and proceeded to take Members through the various elements of the paper. He made reference to the 10% reduction in the number of crimes disseminated to Police and advised that this did not mean that the Police were doing less, but instead was a reflection of the need to improve the quality of reporting and judgements.

In response to a question concerning whether or not Police forces could be encouraged to put more resources into increasing the number of prosecutions, the Commander advised that the support of the Home Office would be required to achieve this but he would aim to do this.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

In relation to the customer satisfaction figures for Action Fraud victim complaints, for which 126 complaints had been received, the Commander advised that although the majority of these related to lack of investigation they were still dependent on people being willing to provide relevant information in the surveys which was not always achieved.

In response to a question asking if more demographic data could be provided, for example the number of victims of each type of crime, the Commander advised that he could provide the National Fraud Statistics which included this information, including profiles for all forces in relation to the number of victims, referrals, reports, age group and outcomes. It was further suggested that at least 3 years worth of reports would enable worthwhile comparisons to be made.

The Commander reported that there had been a 31% increase in the number of courses and a 32% increase in course delegates compared with the same period in the previous year. Delegate satisfaction remained high although some feedback had indicated that delegates were being sent on courses below their level of expertise and work was being undertaken to address this.

The Board sought further clarification on some of the key performance indicators and it was agreed that in order to give a more accurate position the table should include the rationale as well as any mitigating actions.

RESOLVED – That the content of the report be noted