Agenda item

To receive the report of the Head of Locality Partnerships, providing an opportunity to form a discussion around policing priorities in the Outer North East area, with Elected Members, partners and members of the public.

The Head of Localities submitted a report which formed a discussion around policing priorities in the Outer North East area, with input from Elected Members, partners and members of the public.

Inspector Richard Armstead and Sergeant Sam Standen attended the meeting and outlined the following information:

• Inspector Armstead had been in post for the Leeds North East Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) since June 2023, replacing Inspector Richard Horn upon his retirement. It was noted to have been a challenging 6 months.
• Policing priorities for the Outer North East were set by the Police, local community and relevant partners.
• Across the Outer North East, burglary of dwellings was a key priority as well as community concerns for anti-social vehicle use.
• It was noted that anti-social vehicle use at the Moor Allerton Centre had been less of an issue recently, however, work was ongoing to address issues at the park & ride at King Lane. Sergeant Pervin was thanked for his work on this.
• Partnership work with the Council to secure additional CCTV at King Lane had not been successful, however, it had prompted the conversation regarding best practise and a three stage model for engagement, education and enforcement.
• A process for addressing anti-social vehicle use was via tracking and indexing registration plates, with letters being sent to repeat bad drivers, noting they had attracted the attention of the Police. More than 12 letters had been sent and if the pattern of vehicle misuse continued, individuals will be dealt with via Anti-Social Behaviour Orders and Public Space Protection Order powers.
• The increase in residential burglary was a priority for the Leeds North East NPT, with Alwoodley suffering the highest amount out of the three Wards.
• Initiatives to address residential burglary were, preventative strands through NPT and the 999 Team. The Darker Nights campaign included extending Police presence later into the evenings and nights, supported by an intelligence process and tackling cross force and district border burglaries as teams of burglars were noted to have been travelling from Bradford and North Yorkshire to target the area.
• Specific traffic operations had been commenced to target excess speeding, in collaboration with the Stainbeck Police Station team. Methods were, checking vehicles, ticketing people for driving offences, raising the Police profile and work alongside the Vision Zero scheme.
• An operation was scheduled over the Christmas period to target drink driving, along with other driving offences.
• Residential burglary in Harewood had increased with up to 4 reports over the past month, but overall, this Ward had the lowest figures for all reported crime.
• Recent burglaries in Harewood had been commercial and residential with quad bikes being targeted, all options to address these crimes were being considered, with a cross border instant messaging chat established to track stolen property and follow each case.
• Staffing was proportionate to crime demand, with the North East experiencing approximately 30% of all crime in the Leeds district. If Members wanted to request additional staff for the area WYP Officers noted, they would support this.
• Work to identify criminals committing commercial burglary in Wetherby was ongoing, with intelligence being gathered and Farmwatch being re-established.
• A Neighbourhood Support Staff Officer post had been vacant for a significant time. A job offer had been submitted for an individual who was to be released from another role within West Yorkshire Police and was expected to start in January 2024.
• Lines of communication were expected to improve once the post had been filled and Members were thanked for their patience over the past months.

The following points were discussed in response to questions from Members:

• It was confirmed that upon making a report to the Police, a visit will be conducted by Police to a dwelling that had been burglarised, followed up by a forensic investigation. It was noted the initial visit was to provide assurance and was aimed to be done within an hour after a reported burglary.
• It was believed that burglars had been travelling from Bradford and other areas into the Outer North East, largely for socio-economic reasons.
• It was noted that the tasking meetings that were previously held with Alwoodley Ward Members at Stainbeck Police Station could be re-established.
• PubWatch meetings were confirmed to take place on the first Tuesday of each month.
• A recently appointed PCSO was overseeing ShopWatch. It was noted shoplifting impacted Wetherby the most in the Outer North East. It was confirmed that ShopWatch covered Boston Spa.
• The process for Police dealing with theft from a shop was dependent on the context and circumstance, but the threat, harm, risk, investigation, vulnerability and engagement (THRIVE) model was followed. There were around 3 suspected teams of shoplifters operating in the Outer North East.
• As part of the FarmWatch initiative, suggestions for Community Committee funding to provide Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras were outlined. NPT Officers in attendance supported any offer of additional funding and provision of equipment but noted ANPR cameras may raise information governance concerns; clarity on this potential issue was to be sought from higher management.
• Stamping farming equipment and vehicles, to disable the ability for criminals to quickly sell stolen property on, was noted to be used in North Yorkshire, which could also be utilised by West Yorkshire Police.
• In order to further discussions relating to how the Community Committee can support and fund specific Policing technology a meeting was agreed to be scheduled for Members and NPT Officers.
• It was agreed that the Committee will write to Chief Superintendent Dodds, who controls the budget for the district, to request additional staff for the North East NPT Team.
• Reporting crime was encouraged in order to create an evidence based reflection and incident log which will impact on staffing and Police provision for the area. As well as via 999 or 101, reports can be made online.
• Further to the reference in the report that Wetherby and Harewood Wards account for 20% of all recorded crime in North East Leeds, a breakdown of the figures was agreed to be provided into specific crimes for each area.
• It was outlined that a beat code was appointed to the location of a reported crime, but work was ongoing to address cross ward and cross border crimes, however, the beat code was used to record a crimes location that would feed into the crime data for a Ward. Once the Support Officer post had been filled, capacity to work on crime analysis will increase.
• A message of thanks was extended to the NPT Officers for their attendance at the meeting and their work to make communities safer.
  
  

RESOLVED – That the contents of the report, verbal update from West Yorkshire Police and Members comments, be noted.

(Councillor D Cohen joined the meeting during consideration of this item)