Minutes
proposed Cllr Parry, and Cllr Benfield Seconded. All in favour.
Insp Hobman reports
Regular updates on corporate communications. WIP at the moment July 18th highest 999 calls in single month for last 6 years.
Highest incident volume attended in last 3 years for single month. Demand has increased.
Valerie – is there reason for this?
Insp H – no.
Average wait times for reporting bureau 1.22 seconds average 5.47 seconds in June 2017 encourage people to call 101. A lot of work has gone into lowering these wait times.
Behind the scenes and trends. High vehicle crime expected. Make sure valuable are not in vehicles. Thieves try every car in a road to see what is open and available. Dark evenings make it easier for people to take things. Even on driveways and outside houses.
Swindon South Priorities – Emerging gang culture. Remains a priority. Moves the operational response around the area depending on where intelligence directs them. Eldene, Boardgreen and ?? targeted by police. Meeting local kids to make sure not exploited. Covers safeguarding. Have a model now for moving to these areas to tackle groups.
Knife crime. Amnesty operation Ceptar. Warrants to enter homes for weapons and drugs and cash.
Cycle theft increase. Unclear whether organised or local criminals at work. 80 in last month in town centre. Crime prevention work going on in town centre. Marking bikes. Locking to lamp posts are not working, must have chain cutters.
Bus station another priority. Complaints on anti-social behaviour. Drinking, rough sleeping. Patrols prioritised on this area.
Broadgreen siginicant gang issues. Has it been displaced from elsewhere? When people detained in park – they are local. Drugs & weapons taken on arrest.
Fight between youths in Broadgreen and Town Centre.
This emerging culture needs to be dealt with.
Community speed watch. New location every 2 weeks. Making sure schemes are supported by PCSOs and specials. WIP. Wants to support the community on this.
Mentioned in last meeting – Taking back control for PCSO’s. Working with them on getting them into communities and engaging them. Getting into parishes etc. Action plan set up. Meeting will be chaired shortly with all PCSO’s to work on their engagement.
Questions related to Daves report?
Derek – Whats is the gang age?
Dave – 12 to 15. Many are not known to social services. They are being exploited by adults. Do everything by phone. They are offered goods, plus respect and kudos etc. e.g. £100 trainers.
Trying initiatives to dissuade them from this life.
Derek – Confiscation drugs and money – what happens to this?
Dave – Not sure? Will find out…
Derek – Magnet fishing dragging canals. Finding guns etc. What are Dave’s thought?
Dave – Hasn’t seen or heard of this locally.
Gordon Wilson – Gangs – Does police know what can be done to reduce or prevent this?
Dave H – Locking them up won’t work. Need to try to catch the dealers, the adults involved in this. Need to work with kids to stop them being exploited. Need to work out the child’s path through the system. Criminal exploitation of children isn’t something they have previously dealt with.
Kids details are taken and appropriate intervention taken. Children get to see how a court system works and the implication of their crimes.
Kids move up the business model and then decide to work for themselves locally.
2 late arrivals at 18.55
Man to my right in black Chris Watts and lady in peach cardigan. Ann Richards.
Derek – is there a national initiative to deal with this?
Dave – London has been the focus. But need to work hard on this before they get in a difficult position. Groups of young people hanging around is often drug related. Short visits to a particular house etc.
Kevin – approved recommendation for all cllrs to be trained on county lines? (??) Proactive move from the council.
Dave H – talked about mini police – trying to get young kids involved in first positive experience with police and not negative. Already have the cadets.
Paul S – observation of the vulnerability of the young people. Exclusion from school rate – higher than national average in Chiseldon. Suspect its correlated to emerging gang culture.
Quite likely to loose kids over the forthcoming years as we can see the direction they are moving in.
Dave H – exploiters want kids with no engagement with police before. “Good kids” are their target. They will make a great runner.
Watch out for expensive shoes and clothing that may be used to exploit a child.
Item 5 – questions from parish reps
Val Curtis – thanks for action to Dave after the last meeting. The team visit often where the problems in covingham were. Been in regular contact with Phil and the maintenance team to try to get photo evidence. Worked really well and residents understood that they needed to report issues also. Still seeing the individuals concerned but now in their school uniforms.
Late teens/20’s are now a problem. Told residents they must call and report this. In vehicles or mopeds moving around.
Dave – Pinehurst. Mopeds used by gangs to transport items or intimidate. Also used for robberies. Dave will talk to Phil.
Gangs of kids hanging around play parks, but no reports of criminal activity.
Phil is trying to get Cllrs to tidy areas and cut hedges as this can deter criminal activity.
Dave – do find knifes hidden in bushes on gang turf so don’t have to be carried.
Kevin – thanks for work Dave has done. Observations – more foot patrols and not bike patrols would be useful. When he walks around he sees more. Maybe some undercover work?
Dave – this is why talking to PCSOs – they are the eyes on the ground. Need them in the right place at the right time. Need to make sure that PCs can go and support them if they need help.
Agrees that feet on the ground in the right place is the correct action.
Dave – consider cutting back undergrowth to prevent hiding places.
Chris Watts – Thanks also for PCSO’s being in contact with South Swindon PC. Presence in town centre.
Dave has asked sergent to take operation plan – pursue, prevent, prevent. Broadgreen is a good example of working in partnership to improve an area. Help with a litter pick for example.
Chris – Has helped with older kids using the playground. PCSO’s appear to stop them and its helped the PC reclaim the playground.
Brian – Situation with private road improved in Alexandra park for the buses to access it. Now getting speeding complaints.
Does the police have authority over a private road?
Dave – if used as a road then yes.
Brian – Edge of Thorney park issues due to people doing “rally cross” in the area.
Paul S – CCTV. Installed after a crime. From a practical point of view – is CCTV useful?
Dave – Depends on the quality of the footage. Can prosecute just on CCTV footage.
A lot of footage sent is too blurred.
Don’t bother if the image is rubbish. Commercial premises have CCTV and download and send to police. They will ask the owner of the CCTV to provide it to the police. If owner doesn’t know how to do this then it causes extra time. Can’t be enhanced.
Can’t someone decline a request to pass on CCTV? Not likely be could be charged with withholding evidence.
Paul S– local shop has excellent CCTV. PCSO asked to look at it, and was put off by shop keeper being busy. Worried that PCSO might be put off due to tension.
Gordon – dashcams. If you capture a traffic offense, can send footage to the police and they may take action. If it can be identified as an offense and also the vehicle.
Gordon – Also community speed watch – does this mean our speedwatch teams can communite with the police?
Dave – gets a list of locations for speedwatch, to either support with speed camera or assist elsewhere. Not completely organised yet. Need to redevelop these relationships to ensure they can keep going with support.
Item 6
Dave – would like to hear of new trends or issues in the community that police may not be aware of.
Blonde lady Tina? – no drug issues in her area. People hanging around in wooded area looking suspicious. Drug materials found in the trees. Has been told to report but hasn’t seen anything illegal – should she report it?
Dave – if drug paraphanalia left behind should still report. Needs to be able to prevent patterns of crime. PCSOS or PCs can visit – arrange extra patrols etc.
Felt like it was a waste of time reporting it to 101.
Dave will provide an email that can be used for this type of issue – such as community feedback or intel.
Ann Richards – if public complain about crime at parish office. Staff advise to report it. Should the parish office if they don’t report it. The victim or witness should ideally always report it.
Chris Watts – Angus McPherson attended meeting. Resident rang 101 and didn’t get a good response on reporting something. Needs feeding back to 101 line as shouldn’t make people feel bad for calling about an issue.
Zac – Residents passing on info to parishes and wont call 101. What is the best way to report a serious issue to the police if the resident wont report it. Can keep anonymous if don’t want to give details or can use crimestoppers. 101 is the recording mechanism for issues. Everything should be recorded. Can also email a report in.
Paul S – emails can be a problem with a lack of response. From a practical point of view it is hard for police to respond to everything.
Dave – hoping that soon the website will enable people to report issues. Email system isn’t ideal.
A lot of work has gone into improving 101 response. Most reliable method of getting something record.
Zac – previous meeting mentioned problem with recruiting PCs and PCSOs.
Dave – Vacancy number has been addressed now. Fully staffed now. Worked hard on managing the budget for staff. Total police numbers are down in general but back office staff moved to front line roles. Very positive. Hard work on training plan. PCSOs are now part of community policing team. The sergent in charge can direct them alongside the PCs.
Any Other Business
Paul S – NHW – Vice Chair of Wiltshire branch. Worked hard over 18 months to resurrect NHW. Supporting existing scheme and starting new schemes.
Revamping website and have new signs.
National initivate – citizens in policing. Specials form part of this in Wiltshire. ½ million people support the police in various roles. Wilts made significant investment in this area. Some of this money also invested in wilts policing having a watch coordinator. Part time role.
Also have a full time role for someone to coordinate community speed watch.
Also commend the wilts police website. More user friendly and more info on it.
Thanks to everyone who attended.