Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Rebecca Harvey (Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion and Community Safety) and Andrew Dinsmore.

The Chair took the opportunity to welcome Councillor Lucy Richardson and thanked Councillor Trey Campbell-Simon for his contribution in the past years.

If a Councillor has a disclosable pecuniary interest in a particular item, whether or not it is entered in the Authority’s register of interests, or any other significant interest which they consider should be declared in the public interest, they should declare the existence and, unless it is a sensitive interest as defined in the Member Code of Conduct, the nature of the interest at the commencement of the consideration of that item or as soon as it becomes apparent.

At meetings where members of the public are allowed to be in attendance and speak, any Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest or other significant interest may also make representations, give evidence or answer questions about the matter. The Councillor must then withdraw immediately from the meeting before the matter is discussed and any vote taken.

Where Members of the public are not allowed to be in attendance and speak, then the Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest should withdraw from the meeting whilst the matter is under consideration. Councillors who have declared other significant interests should also withdraw from the meeting if they consider their continued participation in the matter would not be reasonable in the circumstances and may give rise to a perception of a conflict of interest.

Councillors are not obliged to withdraw from the meeting where a dispensation to that effect has been obtained from the Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting as an accurate record and note any outstanding actions.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting held on 24 April 2024 were agreed as an accurate record.

This report updates the Committee on the work and progress of the Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) service, and details on the work and progress of the borough’s £5.4m capital investment programme for CCTV with a view to completing the work at the end of 2025/26.

It also provides the Committee with the opportunity to scrutinise the Council’s conduct in relation to directed surveillance, covert human intelligence sources (CHIS) in accordance with the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) and Council policy.

CCTV updates

Neil Thurlow (Director of Public Protection) introduced the report. He outlined the progress of the Council’s £5.4m investment into CCTV upgrade programme which was at its midterm point (running from April 2022 to March 2026).  Under the programme, the ageing infrastructure across the network would be replaced and a number of cameras replaced and upgraded to assist in tackling crimes and anti-social behaviour (ASB). He added that the programme was progressing well.

Neil Thurlow said that Jayne Bacon, the Programme Lead for the CCTV Upgrade was intrinsic to the delivery of this complex work programme highlighting key elements of delivery such as replacing of the infrastructure, replacing and laying new underground cables (in excess of one mile in length at times) as well as upgrading technology with the new system. 

Neil noted that the upgrade would also support the LET with officers’ body worn cameras and its CCTV van being included as part of the upgrade which, together with other deployable cameras, allowed streaming of images from the CCTV van assigned to the areas of most need. Neil also took the opportunity to welcome Adrian Rutkowski, the CCTV Manager, who was also giving a lot of support to the upgrading work.

Neil Thurlow referred to the stated priorities in using the CCTV system (page 11) and highlighted the key outcomes of the service for the last two years. Over 1,500 arrests had been made with 535 over the last 12 months allowing the Police to take offenders off the street. Neil further noted the service ran a traded offer with two neighbouring boroughs, the Royal Borough Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) and Westminster City Council (WCC).  The service launched for WCC the day before was covered by ITV. It was hoped that the service would continue to build on its successes and reputation with a view to receiving further interests.

Councillor Lucy Richardson asked about the ownership and storage of the CCTV data. Neil Thurlow advised that the data were owned by the respective councils (i.e. H&F, WCC or RBKC) or businesses having direct access into the control room and vice versa.  All footages from these data sources coming through the control room located in H&F would be retained for 30 days and automatically deleted according to the retention policy if no enforcement activity was required.

As regards the communication with the Police in utilising the footages to tackle crimes, Neil Thurlow said that officers at the control room had direct contact with the Police through the Met Police radio. Once a crime was detected, the CCTV control room officers would call and/or send the footage to the MET control room.  The two sides would then work together in locating the victims and tracking down the suspects through the police radios and the live images patched to the Police from CCTV. After the CCTV upgrade, the LET could share the footages with the Police digitally through a system with digital stamps similar to Dropbox instead of downloading  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

This report provides the Committee with an update following the previous meeting focusing on work of the Law Enforcement Team between December 2023 and May 2024.

Mo Basith (LET Manager) introduced the report (December 2023 to May 2024), highlighting the number of patrols particularly those in housing stock and parks, the number of service requests and the reactive or proactive actions involved, meeting the Police in several forums of different levels every month, working closely with the partners servicing the homeless, operation of PSPOs and actions taken against VAWG. He also shared the LET’s responses to several incidents that happened in the borough and the service compliments received during the period.

The Chair was pleased to note that the LET service had taken on board this Committee’s suggestion and arranged all officers to receive mental health training in February 2024.

Rough sleeping

Councillor Omid Miri was concerned if there was a pastoral element in mind instead of just enforcement when LET officers handled the rough sleepers.  Mo Basith stressed that enforcement was never the first step they used with rough sleepers. After obtaining the rough sleeper’s background information from the rough sleepers’ coordinator, LET officers might offer assistance to help them change their lifestyle or refer them to temporary accommodation.  Councillor Sally Taylor expressed appreciation on the compassionate way of the LET Manager and his team in dealing with rough sleepers.

The Chair asked about the protocol in removing the homeless person who was also begging, using drugs or engaging ASB in busy areas such as Hammersmith Broadway. Mo Basith noted the LET had tracked some familiar faces with frequent appearance in recent weeks/months and found that they actually lived in council properties. To deter them from undertaking these activities, the LET had served them warning notices.  In case of continual non-compliance as captured by CCTV cameras, enforcement actions would be taken, such as imposing fines.  In reply to Councillor Miri’s follow-up question, Mo advised the LET officers would be patrolling in their uniform so that they could do their job with the protective equipment (PPE).  

PSPOs

Councillor Lucy Richardson referred to the complaints she received against dangerous dogs and asked about the training that had been received by the LET officers in dealing with dangerous dogs and their owners. Mo Basith noted dealing dangerous dogs was a matter for the Police.  However, LET officers were trained to enforce the responsible dog ownership protection order (PSPO) which had been put in place more than six months’ ago to support responsible dog walking in public spaces. LET officers were empowered to take enforcement against those people whose dogs were out of control or fouling.

Noting that there were now altogether seven PSPOs enforceable in the borough, Councillor Miri was concerned about the capacity of the LET’s patrol officers in being well-versed in every single PSPO. Mo Basith referred to the LET A to Z which stated that LET officers were authorised to enforce PSPOs, and issued fixed penalty notice to anyone who breached a specific Order.  Ongoing training would be provided to the LET officers who could also obtain support from the senior if necessary. They might  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To note the following dates of future meetings:

·       20 Nov 2024

·       4 Feb 2025

·       30 Apr 2025

The Committee noted the following dates of future meetings:

• 20 Nov 2024
•  4 Feb 2025
•  30 Apr 2025

Work Programmes:

• Briefing by the Met Police – to invite Christina Jessah, the new BCU Commander and Superintendent Craig Knight to update members on the implementation of the New Met London including the regular community meetings, and Met’s engagement with disabled people, in particular people with invisible disability such as autism without learning difficulties (20 Nov 2024)
• Budget (4 Feb 2025)
• Third Sector Investment Fund </AI6>

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