Agenda and minutes

A webcast of the meeting can be viewed at: http://council.webcast.vualto.com/leicestershire-county-council/home/?EventId=16197

The minutes of the meeting held on 30 June were taken as read, confirmed and signed, subject to the amendment of the second line of the first paragraph of Minute 9 being amended to read “…covering his four year term of office.”.

There were no questions submitted.

There were no urgent items for consideration.

The Chairman invited members who wished to do so to declare any interest in respect of items on the agenda for the meeting.

No declarations were made.

The Panel considered a report of the Police and Crime Commissioner concerning a performance report to quarter 1 (April to June) 2016/17. A copy of the report, marked “Agenda Item 5”, is filed with these minutes.

Prior to debating the report, the Chairman explained to members that the matter was before the Panel as a sole agenda item as a means of informing the Commissioner’s preparation of his first Police and Crime Plan. The draft version of that document was scheduled to be considered by the Panel at its meeting in December following consultation with partners.

In introducing the performance report, the Commissioner drew members’ attention to the fact that the report covered some of the period prior to him having taken office. He particularly welcomed the Home Office’s announcement for a review of hate crime following a national spike in reported incidents following the EU referendum.

Arising from a discussion, the following points were noted:

·                The latest figures in respect of hate crime for the Force area were provided by the Deputy Chief Constable. 92 incidents had been reported during the period between 17 June to 25 July - 2 of which related to disability, 74 of which related to race, 9 of which related to religion/belief, 6 of which related to sexual orientation and 1 of which related to “other”. It was pleasing that the number of hate crimes appeared to be reducing though the Panel welcomed the Commissioner’s commitment to continue monitoring the situation closely and report on the matter at the Panel’s meeting in September. Though the former Prime Minister had announced some additional funding to assist the police in handling the issue of hate crime, no further details on this had been forthcoming under the new Prime Minister, Theresa May;

·                The suggestion for a joint statement from the Force and the Commissioner with regard to how the Force and partners intended to deal with hate crime and some of the associated principles would be considered by a forthcoming meeting of the Leicestershire Safer Communities Strategy Board;

·                A further meeting would be taking place on 4 August on the anti-social behaviour (ASB) issues in Countesthorpe. It would be important that the County Council’s IMPACT Team were represented at this meeting;

·                The Chairman had attended a meeting of the County Council’s Scrutiny Commission on 13 July at which he had been invited to report on the past year’s Police and Crime Panel activity. Two issues ((a) and (b) below) had been raised as a concern at that meeting and were put to the Commissioner accordingly:

(a)       The Force’s strategic response to lower priority crimes such as theft of and from motor vehicles.

In response, the Deputy Chief Constable reported that the response to all reported incidents fell into the following four categories: emergency, priority, appointment to caller and telephone service. In assessing the response required, control room staff used the “THRIVE” acronym: Threat, Harm, Risk, Investigative opportunities, Vulnerability and Engagement. The response given also took into account any historical or repetitive nature of the incident and whether it had impacted a person or not. It also took into account any opportunities to collect evidence;

(b)       Clarity around what constituted a crime and the regulations around recording of incidents.

In response, the Commissioner reported that he was in the process of looking at principles that lay behind the categorisation of crimes as being higher or lower priority. He acknowledged that it was possible that some changes may be required. The Deputy Chief Constable reported that the way in which the Force recorded incidents and crimes was of crucial  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

The next meeting of the Panel is scheduled to take place on 26 September at 1.00pm.

It was NOTED that the next meeting of the Panel would be held on 26 September at 1.00pm [it was subsequently agreed that this meeting would move to 23 September at 1.00pm].