Agenda item
County Lines
Minutes:
Fran Hughes, Chief Executive – Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, introduced this item by highlighting key issues and was joined by Detective Chief Superintendent Steve Parker, Head of Crime for Devon and Cornwall Police.
The following key points were highlighted:
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the report looks at how the Police intervene and reduce harm in the community;
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County Lines crossed a number of crime types, serious violence, modern slavery, human trafficking. This crime had criminal elements, there was a need to safeguard vulnerable members of the community;
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the end of the report showed useful indicators and signs which may be useful to feed back to Local Authorities and communities to raise awareness of what to look out for with County Lines crime;
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the report showed how best crime could be reported, online, 101, or anonymously via Crime Stoppers. |
The Panel discussed:
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how the panel could be involved and give the Police and Crime Commissioner more support?
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how the Covid pandemic had impacted County Lines?
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that that one of the signs to look out for was more people calling at neighbours’ homes; how could neighbours differentiate between gifts being delivered or drug deliveries?
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was there a knife crime epidemic and a surge in County Lines gang related violence, or was it just good aggressive policing to disrupt the villains?
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there had been a 13% increase in weapons offences in the last year. What has made us better at that? Was there an uptake in gang related, drug related activity that may be coming from up country; are we uncovering what’s always been there or was there a significant increase in threat?
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was the Public Health budget a constraint on the impact that police could make on this issue?
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with regards to item 4.13 on page 21 – an awareness workshop took place for agencies and organisations who engage with homeless individuals; when did they take place, who attended, were district council officers attending and were county council children services officers also attending?
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p19 of the report showed figures for 16/17 going into 18/19 drug trafficking offences went from 656 to 1027, this was a massive increase. Was this because more drugs traffic was being picked up due to less traffic to hide in? Is this graph going to go up in a similar fashion, are we prepared for it?
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would the Police and Commissioner be able to develop a strategy that the panel could understand, with clear indicators of progress going forward?
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at the last meeting, an email was sent to the Commissioners team to outline what we wanted from the County Lines, one of these was performance data, this hasn’t been covered in this report;
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that a previous recommendation for 101 RAG ratings to go from amber to red was ignored and it was queried how seriously the panel’s recommendations were taken by the Police and Crime Commissioner;
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how did the Commissioner see her role in supporting the panel with the ongoing scrutiny function, which would be clear, continuous and effective? |
The Police and Crime Commissioner responded to all questions and clarified that no recommendations from the panel were ignored, and that they were considered and dealt with appropriately. The issue of 101 would be discussed under a separate agenda item. It was stated that minutes, actions and requests for information needed to be sent to the office of the Police and Crime Commissioner in a timely manner in order to provide a written response.
It was challenged by Councillor Haydon that actions from the previous meeting held on 25 September 2020, had been emailed to the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner on 9 October 2020 therefore adequate time had been provided for a response for the November meeting.
Councillor Derrick proposed and Councillor Haydon seconded that in light of the serious nature of the County Lines Challenges to policing and crime prevention the panel recommends that PCC publishes a clear strategy to set out the key objectives in addressing county lines to include key indicators to be reported to the panel as necessary. These indicators are to be aimed at allowing panel members to assess critical emerging trends including rising weapons related crime. This was agreed by Members.
Councillor Hackett’s recommendation to incorporate resolutions and recommendations previously made by the panel as a standing item in order to record and monitor progress which the panel wish to be kept in the public domain was agreed by Members.
Supporting documents:
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