Agenda item

To receive and consider the attached report of the Director of Environment and Neighbourhoods, and to receive an update from NPT Inspector Tom Horner, West Yorkshire Police, regarding Community Safety issues within the Outer West Leeds area over the past eight weeks.  

 Inspector Horner introduced the report and announced his departure as NPT Inspector for the Pudsey Neighbourhood Police Team for the West Outer  area and introduced Detective Inspector Simon Atkinson who presented a DVD on the use of ‘capture houses’ and ‘capture cars’ within the division for Members information. 

Both Detective Inspector Atkinson and Inspector Tom Horner responded to questions regarding, how many hits could be made on one property;  what was the cost effectiveness of both ‘capture houses’ and ‘capture cars’ and, whether there had been any cases where Solicitors claimed entrapment in defence of their clients?

In response, Inspector Horner informed the meeting that there can only be one hit per property, that the equipment costs around £2,500, although since introducing this equipment there had been a high success rate in retrieving stolen goods within hours of catching the thief and, as a result, all the cases so far presented at court by the Solicitors working for the Police Authority had resulted in the thief being convicted. 

The Inspector thanked the Area Committee for funding the Police initiative during the Christmas period which had been a great success.  There had been a substantial increase in burglaries and thefts from cars  in the Pudsey, Calverley and Farsley areas in recent months and the extra funding had helped the Police in making the operation successful in capturing culprits who had committed these crimes. 

The Inspector also gave an update on the recent closure of the Black Bull public house in Pudsey area as a result of partnership working with Licensing and other agencies.  Members informed the Inspector that the lights inside these premises were on during the evening, which might suggest that the landlord could be serving alcohol and holding parties for some of his regulars.  The Inspector informed the meeting that he would investigate this matter further and update Ward Members in due course.

Inspector Horner thanked Members for their kind words at the beginning of the meeting and announced that since arriving over two and a half years ago, he had thoroughly enjoyed his time working with this Area Committee, Ward Members, Area Management Officers and agency partners and went on to thank everyone for all their support.  At this point the Inspector introduced his replacement Inspector Richard Caukwell who addressed the meeting with a short introduction and congratulated Inspector Horner for the good service he had provided for the West Outer area and went on to assure the meeting that he would continue to provide a good service.

Both the Chair and Councillor R Lewis welcomed Inspector Caukwell and advised him to keep in touch with Ward Members on issues relating to their Ward.  Both Members also spoke about the good relationship Ward Members had with Inspector Horner and wished him well in his future endeavours.

The Inspector also gave an update on the following issues:

·  Vehicle crime problems in the Pudsey area and arrangements being made to hold another Operation Champion in the Pudsey area.

·  The attendance at the recently held Police and Communities Together (PACT) meeting with local residents regarding the hot spot area in New Farnley.

The Chair reminded Members that there was now a page on the Police Website updating the general public on incidents that have occurred in their area and what it gives an update on the incident within a couple of days.  This should indicate to the general public that the Police had taken action and what was the outcome from their intervention.

RESOLVED -  That the report and presentation be noted.

Note: 

(a)  Councillor A Blackburn joined the meeting at 2.18 p.m. during the   presentation.

(b)  During consideration of the above item, Councillor J Jarosz declared a   personal interest in the above item in her capacity as a Probation   Officer working for Leeds Magistrates Courts.