Agenda and draft minutes

An apology for absence was received from Councillor Sally Taylor.

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 July 2024 were agreed as an accurate record.

This report is intended to update the Committee on the work of the Metropolitan Police regarding overall crime, updates on the work of the Baroness Casey Review and the New Met for London Plan, alongside highlighting some key partnership work undertaken between the Metropolitan Police and Hammersmith and Fulham Council.

Chief Superintendent Christina Jessah gave an update report on policing in Hammersmith and Fulham (H&F), including an update further to the Baroness Casey Review on the work done in the last few months after she had taken up the position as the Chief Superintendent of the Central West Basic Command Unit (BCU) which also covered the Westminster City Council (WCC) and Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC).

Chrissy highlighted the training initiatives in respect of enforcement and prevention had been undertaken and noted that all officers in H&F - from supervisory to PC levels - had attended a 3-day training workshop held across London.

Chief Superintendent Jessah also mentioned about adopting recommendations from the latest HMIC FRS report and enhancing the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) programme by training staff to be active bystanders.

Notwithstanding the above, Chief Superintendent Jessah was regretted to note there were ongoing issues with some officers’ misconduct leading to criminal charges with a further news story released the week of PAC.

Superintendent Craig Knight - who was responsible for H&F neighbourhood teams – briefed the Committee on the operational priorities and challenges faced at a local level.

Craig advised that there was a 6% reduction (FYTD) in overall crime in H&F, with notable decreases in robbery (10%), residential burglary (9%) and theft from motor vehicles (47%). Besides, actions had been taken in conjunction with the British Transport Police to tackle theft of mobile phones. He further noted that it was positive to see more people were reporting anti-social behaviour (ASB) incidents bringing the FYTD figure to 552 more, and collective actions had been taken alongside individual groups/ organisations to keep people free from ASB.

Chief Superintendent Jessah referred to the significant financial challenges with a projected £450 million budget gap for the Metropolitan Police. Superintendent Knight said the potential budget shortfall would have an impact on frontline service delivery.

Non-crime hate incidents

Councillor Andrew Dinsmore asked about non crime hate incidents, their recordings and impact. Chief Superintendent Jessah noted all non-crime hate incidents were recorded as they might be precursors for crime and contain vast amount of intelligence. There was a dedicated unit within the H&F neighbourhood to deal with these incidents and additional staff training had been provided to improve performance of handling disability or racial hate crimes. In reply to Councillor Dinsmore’s further question, she said no team was completely ring-fenced under the current budget situation.

Councillor Omid Miri was concerned about the difference between non-crime hate incidents and hate crime. Chief Superintendent Jessah explained that during the process, the police officers recorded everything and the interpretation would depend on the officer’s investigation, the voice of the victim and most importantly, the decision of the Crown Prosecution Service. She agreed with Councillor Miri that both should be taken as the same kind of phenomenon.

Councillor Dinsmore asked whether a repeated offender of non-crime hate incidents would be tipped over into criminal eventually. Chief Superintendent Jessah confirmed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

To note the following dates of future meetings:

·       4 Feb 2025

·       30 Apr 2025

The Committee noted the following dates of future meetings:

· 4 Feb 2025

· 30 Apr 2025

Work Programmes:

·2025 Medium Term Financial Strategy

· Third Sector Investment Fund