Councillor Peter Southgate welcomed Superintendent David Palmer who was attending on behalf of the new Borough Commander, Chief Superintendent Stuart Macleod, who had taken up the post that day.

David Palmer introduced the report on police numbers, which was intended to explain how numbers and roles had been affected by operational and remit changes over the past two years. He said that it was a complicated picture and that, depending on the definitions used, the overall number of police in Merton has increased by 2 to 8 officers. One member queried the maths and said that he thought the difference was actually zero.

Members of the Commission thanked David Palmer for providing a clear written report and asked questions about police numbers and roles. David Palmer made a number of points in response:

• performance on response rates has increased slightly despite reduction in response team numbers, due to new ways of working
• the reduction in police staff numbers has had an impact on some aspects of the back office such as statistics and communications
• the reduction in the number of PCSOs has had an impact on visibility, based on feedback from public meetings. This may be exacerbated by a change in shift patterns of those officers to be more closely aligned to demand profile, which means a greater presence late at night when there is more crime but this is not as visible to residents
• there has been an increase in the  number of officers and hours spent on walking patrol
• the majority of the MSCs (Specials) who have left did so to become regular Police Constables

David Palmer was asked for an update on the sponsorship offer by the Baitul Futuh Mosque to pay the qualification fee for 50 local people for the certificate of policing knowledge certificate that new recruits are required to gain prior to starting work with the police. He said that this was a very positive initiative and that there has been considerable interest and over 100 applications but that it is too early to confirm how many would be suitable for entry into the MPS. He also stated that those recruited through this process would be given opportunity to work in the borough if they wished to.

David Palmer outlined the information provided in the Metropolitan Police Corporate Dashboard (pages 15-35 of the agenda). Members praised the high performance shown by the figures, and asked how they had managed to reduce crime rates in Merton faster than elsewhere. David Palmer explained that crime rates had been tackled by:

·         using intelligence to target and co-ordinate resources effectively

·         examining what tactics worked and didn’t work for different crime types and making adjustments accordingly

·         focus on control and management of offenders

·         strong partnership working.