Chief Superintendent Sally Benatar, the Basic Command Unit Borough Commander, introduced the report and provided an overview of changes since she previously attended the Commission’s meeting in September 2018. Sally Benatar said that this has been a busy period operationally, with a lot of prevention activity. Crime figures have been relatively stable with a small increase in the number of crimes solved. Knife crime, domestic violence, theft from motor vehicles and burglary continue to be local priorities. She drew the Commission’s attention to two recent stabbings, one in Mitcham and one in Morden, to which there has been a robust police response and a number of knives have been seized.

Members of the Commission expressed concern about the impact of policing the environmental protests in central London on the level of cover and the budget locally. Sally Benatar said that 80-100 officers from the BCU (Merton, Richmond, Kingston and Wandsworth) had been sent each day and that adjustments had been made locally, such as a temporary move to 12 hour shifts, to ensure that there was minimum cover in CID, response teams and ward officers as far as possible.

Sally Benatar, Neil Thurlow (Community Safety Manager) and Councillor Edith Macauley (Cabinet Member for Community Safety, Engagement and Equalities) outlined some of the work that is being done to prevent young people from being drawn into gang culture, including work with schools, school police officers, multi-agency work with voluntary sector, youth offending service and other youth work. Rachael Wardell, Director of Children Schools and Families, provided further detail on the work undertaken by the youth justice team with young people in gangs and problematic friendship groups.

In response to a question about the knife crime action plan, Neil Thurlow undertook to share this private partnership document with members of the Commission on a confidential basis.

ACTION: Community Safety Manager and Head of Democracy Services

Sally Benatar provided additional information in response to questions:

·         The police are still investigating the two recent knife crime incidents, there does not appear to be a link between the two, nor do they appear to be gang related

·         The police are very mindful of the level of public concern and fear of crime, particularly in Mitcham where resources are being deployed accordingly

·         All schools have a named police officer and an allocation of police hours. 2 posts are currently vacant.

Commission members asked a number of detailed questions on police resourcing and police stations as planned. Sally Benatar’s responses are summarised below:

Police resourcing

There are 84 police officer vacancies across the BCU. Recruitment is a priority and the police are actively recruiting at the moment. One of the challenges is that the starting salary of £30k is not attractive compared to some other jobs that candidates could undertake, particularly given the high risk of assault. Merton Council, local MPs and partner organisations have been very supportive in assisting the police to reach out to communities through stalls at events and other publicity.

Once all the vacancies have been filled, Sally Benatar would be happy to have discussions with the council about the potential for the deployment of funded police officers with the council.

Police stations

Sally Benatar read out a prepared statement:

“ The intention set out in our consultation document in 2017 was for Mitcham Police Station to be the 24/7 front counter location and Response parade site for Merton Borough, with Earlsfield Police Station remaining the Response parade site for Wandsworth Borough and with Wimbledon Police Station to be sold.

After eleven months’ experience of working at greater scale across the boroughs, it has been identified that there is a need to review the operational implications of continuing to operate with two separate Response parade sites for Merton and Wandsworth, as opposed to having a shared parade site covering both boroughs. This internal review is now taking place.”

In response to concerns raised by members of the Commission, Sally Benatar said that she had requested this review to investigate the most efficient way of using police resources now that these were deployed at greater scale within the BCU. She stressed that this was a separate matter to the location of the 24/7 front office (police station) and that there would continue to be one of these in each borough, the location of which would be a matter for MOPAC.

The Commission and the Cabinet Member for Community Safety, Engagement and Equalities requested further detail of the review to be made available in a briefing to councillors. Members of the Commission said they wished to be fully sighted on decisions that would have an impact on policing in Merton and that there should be a public consultation. Sally Benatar said that there had not been a public consultation when the Kingston and Richmond Response parade sites were merged and there was no plan to have a public consultation on how Response policing is delivered as this is an operational policing decision.  The public consultation on front counters was a separate issue. Sally Benatar undertook to take the Commission’s concerns back and said that she would share a briefing note with them as soon as she could.

RESOLVED: the Commission agreed to invite the BCU Commander to a future meeting for an update on police estate matters as well as crime statistics and other policing issues.