Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed those present.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Whelband and Councillor Cutkelvin.

It was noted that Councillor Dempster was present as a substitute for Councillor Cutkelvin.

Members will be asked to declare any interests they have in the business on the agenda.

Members were asked to declare any pecuniary or other interests they may have in the business on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the meeting held on 27^th July 2022 are attached and Members will be asked to confirm they are an accurate record.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 29^th July 2022 were a correct record.

The Chair advised that she had agreed to take an item under any other urgent business and that there would be a change in the running order of the agenda to deal with that matter first.

AOUB 1. Civil Disorder in the City

The Chair has agreed to take an item of urgent business to allow the Police and Crime Commissioner and the Acting Chief Constable to provide a statement to the panel around the disorder that has been occurring in the city and to respond to any questions panel members may have.

AOUB 1 Disorder across in East Leicester

The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) addressed the panel referring to the recent episodes of disorder across the east side of the city and paid tribute to the Acting Chief Constable (ACC) and all the police officers involved in dealing with the disorder that had occurred in the streets of Leicester recently.

The PCC advised that he had maintained daily contact with the ACC to remain apprised of the situation, and it was noted that during the disturbances several police officers were injured fortunately none of them seriously, but the force had been keeping in contact with them and providing the appropriate support.

The PCC stated there was no excuse for the scenes that had taken place, and whatever the provocation there was no reason to go out on streets and cause violence and fear for others. The PCC expressed his admiration for the police officers dealing with the situation and to those who had been working extra shifts and overtime to cover for those dealing directly with the issues in the city. It was noted that the force had been able to respond professionally and effectively to the situation.

The PCC welcomed the actions of ACC in contacting the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) to undertake an independent review of the policing operation to date and to explain the measures being taken to avoid further issues occurring at forthcoming festivities in the city such as Navratri and Diwali.

Rob Nixon, Acting Chief Constable (ACC) addressed the panel and thanked some of those within the room who had been involved in elements of addressing this issue and helping to bring groups to talks outside. The ACC gave an insight into the situation that occurred noting it remained a dynamic and fast moving situation and he welcomed the several nights of calm which was an encouraging direction of travel.

In terms of what had led to the disturbances it was clear that a cricket match between rival teams was probably a flash point although not the cause and there had been simmering tension before that. It was not appropriate to try to over simplify what had happened as there were multiple layers of complexity linked with this.

As a result of the disturbances the ACC had triggered a review in terms of the policing of events and what policing would be taken forward. Alongside that it was noted that the City Mayor had instigated an independent review of the broader issues leading to the unrest. It was recognised that there was an international to local dynamic and difficulty between different communities and integration of emerging newer groups, which involved some perceptions of a lack of respect culturally, as well as a “resetting” in leadership between younger and older generations.

In relation to the actual disturbances the panel were informed that since 28th August 2022 the police had a detailed timeline of events taking place and for each of those events there was an active  ...  view the full minutes text for item 29.

Members to receive a report providing an update on progress against the Police and Crime Plan objectives.

The Police and Crime Panel considered a report highlighting progress made by the OPCC and the police towards implementation of the Police and Crime Plan.

The Panel noted that the Police and Crime Plan was approved by the panel last year and that the update focused on the objectives aligned to the PCC’s manifesto which would contribute to the aim of making Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland safer for everyone that lived and worked there

The Panels attention was drawn to the following points:

·         Investments in technology to support modern policing as this remained an important area and enhancing performance through technology was key.

·         The work being done on violent crime, including the involvement of the violence reduction network (VRN), the steps being taken to pool resources and improvements to the grants process in conjunction with the VRN.

·         The force continued to be a good force and the PCC was not only responsible for holding the Chief Constable but also specific functions around equalities, the forces engagement with local people, and force collaboration arrangements.

·         There were plans to enhance police volunteers and Specials who were both a great asset to the force.

·         Neighbourhood watch schemes would be expanded with improved support and the PCC was looking at meaningful ways they could liaise with other agencies.

The Chair thanked the PCC for the update and invited questions from the panel.

The Panel welcomed the establishment and expansion of the rural policing team. In terms of enhancing public confidence in policing it was confirmed that the PCC plan said a front enquiry desk would be in Rutland, more specifically that would be in Oakham. Other premises were being explored with a view to opening “by appointment only” facilities across the force area so people do not have to travel long distances.

Regarding CCTV although not actually the PCC’s responsibility to provide that in an area there was the safer streets initiative and if it were deemed that CCTV fits within that, then funding could be made available although it depended on the merits of each case.

The Chair welcomed the report, noting the positive progress being made on the Police and Crime Plan and asked that a further update be brought to the panel in due course.

RESOLVED:

That the contents of the report be noted and a further update shall be brought to a future meeting.

Members to receive the Police and Crime Commissioners Annual Report 2021-22

The Police and Crime Panel considered the Police and Crime Commissioner’s draft Annual Report 2021/22, the final version of which would be published into the public domain on the OPCC website by end October 2022.

The Chair welcomed the report and the work highlighted by the PCC and commented that she had enjoyed reading the contents and appreciated the tribute to former Chief Constable Simon Cole too.

The Panel queried the crime statistical data (page 24) indicating all crime had increased from last year to this except for robbery. It was advised that the crime statistical data was still heavily affected by the impact of covid lockdown and overall crime had been changing considerably. Some crimes had increased over the period whilst others went down, a lot of the changes were not expected, and it would be some time before matters showed a full reflection post pandemic or any levelling out.

The Panel queried the content around sexual offences being attributed to positive campaigns despite data showing a continued increase in these offences and it was queried why those weren’t seen as an outlier and the justification for that. It was clarified that when the OPCC governance board considered the data sexual offences were usually marked as exceptions however when the data was further explored some of the rise was due to changes in crime type categorisation, so the data reflected it was not just about an increase in reporting offences but there were also more offences being recorded because of categorisation changes too.

The Panel enquired about arrangements for community safety funding considering recent events and noted there were various funds and grant schemes available which were open for organisations to bid into following set criteria and panel members were urged to advise organisations to bid.

 A typographical error within the table on page 24 of the draft annual report required amendment to show date bandwidth 1^st April 2020 to 31^st March 2021.

The Panel welcomed the information around restorative justice and suggested it would be good to also see details of the numbers of victims engaged in this process.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the PCC’s Annual Report 2020/21 be approved, subject to the comments made by the Panel.

2.    That the comments made by the Panel (as set out above) form a report to be submitted to the PCC for his information.

Members to receive a report providing information around domestic abuse and related alcohol use.

The Police and Crime Panel considered a report providing an update on domestic abuse and analysis on alcohol related domestic abuse.

The Acting Chief Executive Officer (OPCC) introduced the report and reminded the panel of the presentation given to the December 2021 meeting which also looked at the correlation between domestic abuse offences and the use of alcohol in those offences.

The Panel were reminded of the levels of domestic abuse reports occurring during covid lockdowns which had been reviewed and exceptions to the data noted. It was noted that levels of domestic abuse reports had remained at a higher level since March 2021 with currently a 6.5% increase for the last 12 months compared to the previous year.

The force had undertaken a review of the response to domestic abuse and were in the process of implementing several agreed recommendations which included increasing resources within the Domestic Abuse Investigation Unit, improving use of data to identify escalating risk in domestic abuse cases and repeat cases and where appropriate video calls to improve response time to victims.

Data was presented which compared figures regarding domestic abuse and the percentage of alcohol related offences. The Panel were informed that changes to crime recording processes had affected the overall numbers as for example there was now a requirement to record separately any domestic related stalking offence in addition to the primary offence.

A breakdown of the victim and offender profiles from demographic data was given, and it was noted that the victim profile was predominantly female with 73% of all victims being female whilst the majority of perpetrators against females were ex-partners as opposed to current partners. In terms of both male and female victims 75% of offenders were male and where the victim was male 35% of offenders were male and 65% female.

In terms of alcohol related domestic abuse it was noted that the crime data recorded by Leicestershire police indicated a low level of alcohol misuse as a contributory factor in 22% of cases. This was found to be below the national level, which showed between 27 and 40% of perpetrators being under the influence of alcohol. Further analysis of the data in trend charts did however show a continued upward trajectory of alcohol related domestic abuse.

Details of temporal analysis modelling the volumes of behaviour by days of the week over time were considered and it was noted that the time in which the majority of alcohol related domestic abuse incidents took place was over the weekend between 2200hrs and 0100hrs.

The Panel welcomed the report which they found to be concise and informative, and the ensuing discussion included the following comments:

The report underpinned previous concerns raised that there was principally a rise in domestic abuse offending during Covid lockdowns in 2020 and a further concern at that time was once there was a return from restrictions whether there would be seen a cause and effect linked to those lockdowns however the data showed the trajectory of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32.

Members to receive a report outlining details of efficiency savings.

The Police and Crime Panel considered a report providing details of the Finance Strategy which focused on the force’s continuing approach to deliver value for money, secure efficiency and invest to improve performance and outcomes as well as details of the savings and efficiencies achieved to date.

The report referred to the force plans to deliver on efficiencies, its approaches and principles taken which so far had identified savings this financial year.

Details about the use of reserves and balances, risk management and the governance mechanism for financial matters along with future priorities were noted as set out in the report.

The Panel enquired about the Emergency Services Network (ESN) and noted that the budget for the ESN had been ringfenced as this was a long outstanding national programme which had been delayed for many years and was expected to incur significant dual running costs when it was finally implemented.

The Panel noted that inflation was impacting on all establishment budgets and at the time of this report being requested the wider economic picture was different to now, however the Panel were interested to understand whether the anticipated saving of 0.5% of net revenue budget referred to at the pre-cept meeting earlier this year was still achievable.

The Acting Chief Finance Officer affirmed that saving would be accommodated, and those savings reinvested into the force where needed and agreed it was even more apparent to do that in the current climate. Early conversations had begun around the next budget to identify needs and start reviewing once it was known what the full impacts would be.

The Panel commented it would have been helpful to see specific examples of efficiency savings included in the report and requested that be considered for inclusion in future reports of this nature.

The Chair thanked officers for the update and commented that a lot of organisations would be looking at the challenges of making efficiency savings.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the contents of the report be noted,

2.      That an update report be brought to a future meeting of the panel to include specific examples and progress against the savings target.

Members to receive a report providing an update on force recruitment and retention of police and staff.

The Police and Crime Panel considered a report providing an update on the forces recruitment processes and the ability to retain officers.

The Police and Crime Commissioner introduced the report advising the steps he’d taken to gain further information and data from the force to better understand the processes and issues around recruitment and retention of officers and also to understand the present policy towards recruitment and to know more about recruits and promotion processes including what was being done to achieve specific targets, value for money as well as ensuring that force policy was in line with the aims of the Police and Crime Plan.

The Panel were advised there had been considerable effort between the OPCC and force to gather all the data and there was still some work to do around leavers exit information gathering.

The PCC also informed that matters were progressing in the right direction with a police force more broadly based across the various communities and more capacity for training officers in the different things they needed to know.

It was noted that the force had by volume recruited proportionately the highest number of officers of any force in the country during the national uplift programme whilst also increasing the diversity profile in each monitored protected characteristic.

During discussion of the report the Panel noted the comments around retention of officers and were concerned at the prevalence of officers (58%) leaving within the first 2 years of service. Panel members recognised the role was demanding and queried whether this data highlighted an issue of how to give support to police officers who may have gone through certain experiences.

It was also suggested that recruitment should be more robust to ensure all candidates were fully aware and prepared for what the role entailed. The Panel were interested to know more about the reasons why people were leaving especially in the first two years and sought more detail of why they transferred to other forces too i.e., promotion, better rates of pay etc.

Responding to the comments about providing support, it was stated that Leicestershire force provided support with various options available such as peer support, HR and various other staff. Overall, it was understood the support was good and this was reflected in the low levels of officers going off with stress compared to other forces.

As far as the difficulties in obtaining data from the force it was clarified that this was not because of the force being obstructive and was more about the availability of data as some had not been held previously and steps were being taken to now capture that such as keeping socio economic indicators for new recruits.

In terms of data around leavers, it was confirmed that exit interviews were carried out both in the force and at the OPCC, however those were voluntary and leavers could not be compelled to do those, so the data was still patchy. The PCC did feel that there was more that could  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34.

Members to receive an update about recent reports presented to the OPCC Corporate Governance Board which includes an overview of OPCC and Force performance.

The Police and Crime Panel considered a report which provided an update of reports recently received by the Corporate Governance Board (CGB) and an overview of the Leicestershire Police performance.

The Police and Crime Commissioner introduced the report reminding the panel that the CGB was the mechanism by which he held the Chief Constable to account.

A selection of reports submitted to the CGB were provided to the panel for information and noting.

It was noted that:

·         The Remembrance Policy was provided for the purpose of understanding formally the roles of police officers at remembrance and gave clarity to officers about attending local parades and whether they were allowed to wear police uniform.

·         The potential to issue tazers to Special Constables followed a nationally agreed policy which considered the issuance of CED devices to Special Constables. The report to the CGB provided assurance about the criteria which the force would need to classify and the processes to ensure that Special Constables would receive proper training that was as rigorous as the training for employed police officers. The PCC  was of the view that given that policy conditions were met, any officer who was properly trained, supervised and kept under review should have a tazer.

·         A report on policing elections/electoral fraud was brought to ensure the force’s knowledge about policing elections remained robust.

·         The mini police initiative came from the PCC’s manifesto and was run by Leicestershire Police and delivered by PCSO’s to primary schools to engage young people and provide positive early interaction with the police.

·         The term School Liaison Officer was clarified and could mean two things, namely a local beat officer who goes into schools as part of a patch or a specially trained officer that visits schools to divert problem children away from trouble.

Panel members welcomed the report, finding the information provided useful especially in terms of their Community Safety Partnership roles too.

The Panel referred to the inconsistency of PCSO’s who were trained to use speed guns but prevented from issuing a penalty notice through local policy which seemed to be a waste of resource. The PCC agreed to explore that issue.

The Chair thanked the Police and Crime Commissioner and officers for the report and supporting documents.

RESOLVED:

                        That the contents of the report be noted.

Members to receive a verbal update about the Perpetrator Intervention provision.

The Police and Crime Panel received a verbal report from the Acting Chief Finance Officer (OPCC) advising that the Home Office had granted additional funding which meant the OPCC were successful in receiving £191,000 towards  its Perpetrator Intervention Provision.

It was noted that the funding ran until 31^st March 2023 and there would need to be further discussion on future funding for the provision.

The Chair noted that the city council also contributed funds towards the Perpetrator Intervention Provision, and it would therefore be helpful to see any data or outcomes as to the value of the provision.

RESOLVED:

That the Acting Chief Finance Officer shall submit a report providing data and outcomes of the Perpetrator Intervention Provision to a future meeting of the panel.

Members to receive the Panel’s Annual Report highlighting the activities undertaken by the Police and Crime Panel during the 2021-22 municipal year.

Panel members received the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Police and Crime Panel Annual Report highlighting the activities undertaken by the Panel during 2021-22 municipal year.

RESOLVED:

That the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Police and Crime Panel Annual Report be approved.

Members to note the ongoing work programme.

The current work programme was received and noted.

Items to be added to the Work Programme and scheduled to future meetings:

·         Prevent and Hate Crime update at later date to correspond with any update on the review.

·         Task group report on s106 Funding to come to December 2022 meeting.

·         Local Criminal Justice System – report on issues and steps being taken to address the challenges.

·         Modern Day Slavery/Human Trafficking – to gain further understanding of the issues.

Members will be asked to note the dates of meetings for 2023 as follows:

·         Wednesday 1^st February 2023      (Pre-Cept)

·         Thursday 16^th February 2023        (if veto used at previous meeting)

·         Monday 6^th March 2023                  Spring meeting

·         Thursday 22^nd June 2023               Annual General meeting

·         Wednesday 26^th July 2023             Summer meeting

·         Wednesday 4^th October 2023        Autumn meeting

·         Wednesday 13^th December 2023 Winter meeting

The date of the next meeting was noted as follows:

·         Weds 14^th December 2022 at County Hall

Dates of meetings for 2023 were confirmed as follows:

·         Wednesday 1^st February 2023 at City Hall – Pre cept meeting

·         Wednesday 16^th February 2023 at City Hall – Provisional date in case a veto on pre-cept is exercised at 1^st Feb meeting

·         Monday 6^th March 2023 at County Hall – Spring meeting

·         Thursday 22^nd June 2023 at City Hall – AGM

·         Wednesday 26^th July 2023 at County Hall – Summer meeting

·         Wednesday 4^th October 2023 at City Hall – Autumn meeting

·         Wednesday 13^th December 2023 at County Hall – Winter meeting

All meetings to commence at 1pm unless otherwise notified.

The Chair thanked everyone present for their input today.

There being no further business the meeting closed at 3.20pm.