The Chair invited Chief Superintendent Lis Chapple to give a brief opening statement.

The Chief Superintendent requested to put on record herthanks to the people in this room, and to other partners, for the incredible and compassionate partnership work over the very sad incident that occurred in Galpins Road. It's been a time of significant difficulty for the families involved and I know a lot of the officers and Members in the room have given a lot of personal time to this issue. We continue to pursue our investigation on the matter.

The Metropolitan Police are now formally in special measures, as are several other forces nationally. I am in regular dialogue with the chief executives, including Hannah Doody, about our plans and how we'll be dealing with this.

We have a new Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, who starts on Monday and will be doing some press to set out what he hopes to achieve in his 100-day plan. We do know neighbourhood policing will be heavily prioritised.

In response to questions from Commission Members:

Neighbourhood crimes are burglary, anti-social behaviour, theft of motor vehicles and theft from motor vehicles. We have a combined burglary and robbery team as that's how resources across all BCU’s are set up. Now because of the spike in robbery, from Monday, we will have split that team into separate robbery and burglary teams and I’m really hoping that that will help improve the focus and outcomes.

Across the whole BCU we do have the highest reductions of burglary in the Met so most other BCU’s are showing a very small reduction or even a small gain, but we have overall the best rates for reducing burglary.

Regarding the issues raised at a public meeting in relation to how people's properties had been accessed in Galpin’s Road, Cllr Whelton asked the Chief Superintendent whether she would be willing to attend one of the public meetings in Pollards Hill to help build trust with the community. The Chief Superintendent confirmed she is very happy to attend community meetings if that is needed.

The Ride-along Scheme is still in operation. Councillors can complete a short application form here: 

Link to Ride-along scheme (currently working)

https://www.met.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/st-s/stop-and-search/ras/met/ride-along-scheme/

The BCU is divided into two from a response policing perspective - we have two response bases.

·         Twickenham  - serves Kingston and Richmond

·         Wimbledon – serves Merton and Wandsworth

Following the meeting, the Chief Superintendent supplied the information requested by Members below.

Neighbourhood officer vacancies

Wards with vacancies:

·         Abbey - 1 PC instead of 2 as 1 PC is acting up as an Acting/PS

·         Cricket Green - PCSO leaving to become PC

·         Ravensbury - 1 PC has moved to Merton Park

·         Village - 1 PC instead of 2 as 1 PC is acting up as an Acting/PS

·         Merton Park - PCSO leaving for another role in the Met

Total Officers/PCSO’s:

·         37 DWO’s (3 under strength)

·         18 PCSO’s (2 under strength)

There are 6 Sergeants, 2 are temporary in the role and the others are Substantive

Safer Schools Officers

The number of schools officers that Southwest BCU is allocates is 4 PS and 39PCs.

There is currently 1 PC vacancy across the BCU which is at Kingston

In the next few months we have the following leaving:

·         1 PS leaving on promotion

·         2 PCs leaving on promotion

·         1 PC moving to Heathrow

·         2 PCs retiring

·         1 PC resigned

Adverts have been put out and we have interested parties.

Sanction detection definition

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/191822/detection-open-data-notes.pdf

The Chair thanked the Chief Superintendent for attending.