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Funded by the If you require further information about this agenda please contact Gary O’Key on 020 8583 2065 or by email at gary.o’[email protected] HOUNSLOW BOROUGH COMMUNITY POLICE CONSULTATIVE GROUP A meeting of the Hounslow Borough Community Police Consultative Group will be held in the Civic Centre, Lampton Road, Hounslow on Monday, 14 September 2009 at 7:00 pm AGENDA 1. Welcome and Apologies for Absence 2. Minutes of the meeting held on 13 July 2009 & Matters Arising (Pages 1 - 5) 3. Presentation: Stop and Search (Pages 6 - 16) Ch Insp Andy Morgan and Tamsin Kelland (MPA) Break 4. Police Progress Update (Pages 17 - 63) 5. Police Community Consultation - Open Questions and Discussion (Group) 6. Police Community Consultation - Open Questions and Discussion (Public) Members of the public may raise matters regarding local policing. A more effective response can be provided if advance notice is given to the Secretary before 1pm on the day of the meeting. A question paper is enclosed with the agenda. 7. London Wide Update (including minutes where available) (Pages 64 - 67) 8. MPA Newsletters (Pages 68 - 76) 9. Venues for Group Meetings 10. Date and Venue of Next Meeting The next meeting will be held on Monday 16 November 2009 in Committee Rooms 1&2, Hounslow Civic Centre. 11. Any Other Business (Page 77) Agenda Item 2 At a meeting of the Hounslow Borough Community Police Consultative Group held on Monday, 13 July 2009 at 7:00 pm at Chiswick Catholic Centre, 2 Dukes Avenue W4 2AE. Present: Councillors Shirley Fisher and Lal. Flavia Beckwith, Ch. Supt. David Bilson, Valerie Brasse, Supt Clive Chalk, Mohammad Chaudhry, Brian Close, Mel Collins, Vivienne Cox, Lata Dhiri, Meenu Dhiri, Gilli Heagarty, Tamsin Kelland, Temoor Khan, Ron Lewis, Harinder Pattar, Syed Rashid Qadri and Leslie Robinson Apologies for Absence Councillor Hearn Dom Banza-Mwenze, Chris Boucher, Krishan Chopra, David Hardman, Alan Keen, Ann Keen and Mahmud Mirza 1. Welcome and Apologies for Absence Mohammad Chaudhry, Chair, welcomed attendees to the meeting. He also informed the Group that Supt Clive Chalk would be leaving his post shortly to join the Professional Standards department of the Met. Mohammad thanked Supt Chalk for his efforts and thought that he had done an exemplary job. He proposed that Ch Supt David Bilson, Borough Commander, put a note on his personal file in order to publicly record the Group’s thanks for services to the Borough. This was seconded by Mel Collins and agreed by all present, and Ch Supt Bilson stated that he would be very happy to do so. 2. Minutes of the Meeting held on 11 May 2009 & Matters Arising On page 2, paragraph 4 of the minutes, Valerie Brasse wished for it to be noted that she had also been on a custody visit. On page 5, paragraph 3, Clive Chalk stated that “Grange Hill” should in fact read “Gravesend”. Subject to these changes, the minutes of the meeting on 11 May 2009 were approved and signed off by the Chair as an accurate record. 3. Presentation - MPS Volunteer Cadet Corps Ch Supt Bilson introduced Brooke Dunlop and Jacob Powell, two members of the Hounslow & Richmond Volunteer Cadet Corps, who proceeded to give a short presentation. Jacob told the Group that the Cadet Corps comprised youths aged between 14 and 21 who expressed an interest in the Police service. They met weekly at a meeting run by serving or ex-Police officers to take part in drill training and to learn about Police-related subjects. The aim was to promote good citizenship and encourage interaction between youths and the Police. Brooke went on to explain that Cadets were involved in non-confrontational policing events, such as local remembrance parades and the Youth Crime Conference. In 1 addition, she had recently been to Hampton Court Flower Show, spending a full ten-hour day helping out at the lost property office. Cadets were also involved in test purchasing – the attempted purchase of age-restricted items, including alcohol, fireworks and knives. They were supervised by a police officer who would then issue a caution and fill out the relevant paperwork if an underage purchase took place. This could result in a fine or a court appearance, and licensing officers were routinely informed. Jacob thanked Group members for listening, and a question and answer session then took place, resulting in the following information. Many Cadets went on to become officers or PCSOs. Though this was very positive, recruitment was not the primary aim. At a recent parade of 4,000 London Cadets – the biggest such gathering to date - each Borough was presented with new colours. There was a plan to try to bring in young people who had been in trouble and a recruiting exercise had occurred in Hammersmith & Fulham. The majority of the Hounslow and Richmond Cadet Corps were from Hounslow, Sunbury or Shepperton – just five of the 35 came from Richmond. The take-up among ethnic minorities was not quite as high as hoped, but this situation could be improved if the planned establishment of a second unit in the Borough took place. The meetings currently occured in Sunbury. Mohammad Chaudhry asked whether the Cadets could perhaps shadow officers on local High Streets in order to establish more of a presence and thus help with recruitment. Ch Supt Bilson stated that, while the MPS tried to enable them to be visible, they had to be very careful each time Cadets were deployed, since they hadn’t had officer safety training. Group members joined Mohammad in expressing their thanks to Jacob and Brooke for their presentation. 4. Presentation by MPS Directorate of Professional Services - The Independent Police Complaints Commission (to be confirmed) The Professional Services/IPCC presentations did not take place at this meeting; however, Mohammad hoped that Clive Chalk would be able to come back to the meeting on behalf of Professional Services to give a presentation in due course. 5. Police Progress Update Ch Supt Bilson addressed the Group regarding two recent collisions involving Police vehicles – one in Hounslow and the other in Brentford. Although there were no lasting injuries, these incidents were regarded as serious. He clarified the policy on emergency response and safe driving. Police drivers were trained to the highest standards, and were regularly monitored and 2 reviewed. Only those with a clean driving licence could drive Police vehicles, and a two- week instruction course had to be completed before officers were allowed to drive in emergency mode. Further Advanced Driving training was then required in order to be authorised for pursuit and chase. Driving licences were checked every year and penalty points were issued to anyone involved in a collision. It was very unusual to have two collisions in such a short space of time. In the most serious, robbery suspects were being chased in Chiswick and police colleagues in Isleworth came to assist. On their way through Brentford High Street, a cyclist pulled out in front of the car and a collision took place. The scene was locked down and the incident was investigated in depth. It was established that the officers had not committed an offence and the cyclist sustained minor injuries. Had there been a fatality, the IPCC would have conducted an investigation. Ch Supt Bilson then went on to introduce the latest Police reports. He began by apologising to members for the statistics provided in the agenda pack. These were submitted without his consent and contained a number of errors, rendering them meaningless. He expressed his frustration at this and told the Group it would not happen again, before circulating corrected versions of the Performance Overview and Detection Rate Overview tables (pages 41 and 42 of the agenda). Burglary was still on the increase, with Heston, Osterley and Chiswick being particular hot spots. The rate of increase was being held back however, and lots of crime prevention work was taking place. Street robbery was down, possibly due to increased visible patrols in Chiswick. There had been two unconnected stabbings, prompting concern in residents. In both incidents, assailants had been arrested and charged, and patrols had been stepped up in Hounslow, Isleworth and Chiswick. Ch Supt Bilson expressed unease at the crime detection rate, which had prompted a review from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC). This was a lengthy process and HMIC produced a detailed report after looking at all areas of policy. They were satisfied with the evidence submitted and would not be conducting a re-inspection. 6. Police Community Consultation - Open Questions & Discussion (Group) Mel Collins asked when blue lights and sirens should be used as he was worried there may be occasions when this helps perpetrators to flee, thus affecting the crime detection rate. Ch Supt Bilson stated that the principle was to protect human life; this meant that sirens were used as a warning instrument if violence was occurring or thought to be imminent, but a silent approach was used if suspects were on site. Cllr Lal asked how the Police proposed to tackle knife crime, allegations of which were rising. Ch Supt Bilson was of the opinion that there was a need to target officers’ time more effectively. The Police were also engaged with secondary schools, and he was happy that head teachers had allowed knife arches to be used. Vivienne Cox thought that the risk of domestic burglary might be increased when refuse and recycling were left out for collection before the allotted day, making it obvious someone was away from home. Ch Supt Bilson had not considered this but thought it was a good point and resolved to work on it.

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