Issue - meetings

Detective Sergeant Mazur presented a report which outlined policing and safer neighbourhood trends and outlined actions taken since the last reporting period.

The current emerging issues/neighbourhood trends for each ward were also highlighted (see report for full details). The following local areas of concern were recommended for consideration:

          • Serious street-based violence, targeting offenders

• Serious street-based violence, youth-based interventions

• Drug-related crime and acquisition crime related to drugs

In response to questions and comments from the Committee, Detective Sergeant Mazur said the following:

     i.        Noted the request from Councillor Herbert for a copy of the Environmental Audit that took place on St Matthews Gardens and Corrie Road but this had been undertaken by the Community Safety Team (Cambridge City Council).

    ii.        A process had to be followed before a detailed media release could be given regarding the 39 cycles recovered in Coleridge Road. All serial numbers would be checked against the relevant database, and checked against a crime report, to identify cycle owners. Proof of ownership would be required for cycles where an owner could not be identified.

  iii.        Staffing capacity had increased on the local police team with staff employed internally from various departments following a recruitment process.

  iv.        Since the last area committee attend by the police, a great deal of focus had been placed on the train station to assess the scale of the cycle theft problem. Work had taken place to improve site security with time spent patrolling the site. However, the site was privately owned by Greater Anglia and the Police had put forward suggestions on how to make the site more secure. The Police had also undertaken viewing CCTV to scan for incidents and carry out investigations on those incidents if a crime had been spotted.

   v.        In the six months; there had been one person charged with cycle theft and three under investigation (believed to be prolific offenders). This did look like a limited return on the work that had been carried out, but it was recognised there was a low success rate of solving crime where CCTV was the primary evidence.

  vi.        The CCTV had to be of sufficient quality for a still image to be produced, and an individual available to view an image to positively identify an offender. This also applied to shop lifting crimes.

 vii.        With reference to the burglaries that had taken place in Abbey Ward, likely offenders had been identified, they had also carried out burglaries outside of east area which had led to joint working with neighbouring forces.

viii.        A new sergeant had been employed by the burglary division which increased investigatory capabilities; burglaries were often linked together, which took time to investigate which could be frustrating those who had been a victim of this type of crime.

The Committee:

Resolved unanimously to approve the following as local areas of concern:

          • Serious street-based violence, targeting offenders

• Serious street-based violence, youth-based interventions

• Drug-related crime and acquisition crime related to drugs.