Agenda item

Odette Robson, Head of Safer Communities and Catherine Clarke, Chair of the Community Safety Partnership attended the meeting to present a bi-annual update on partnership working around the priority areas agreed by North Yorkshire Community Safety Partnership. The report provided an improved focus on performance with performance data/statistics presented in Appendix A and referenced was made to some additional information circulated by Odette Robson prior to the meeting which addressed two issues raised by the committee in September 2023 when they received the last update i.e.:

i.    What was driving sexual orientation related hate crimes and the steps being taken to address it, as part of their next update?

The update confirmed there was no obvious pattern/trend to the increase looking at the data over that quarter (62 reports compared to 43 previous year same quarter). It was spread across periods of time across the year.

It also confirmed North Yorkshire Police and partners were taking steps to address sexual orientation hate crime, with more awareness raising taking place and encouragement of reporting. For example:

·         North Yorkshire Police undertook a survey at the Pride event in York in June 2023 to help establish what the barriers were to reporting and to support the building of trust and relationships. 

·         York LBGT Forum delivered a session during Hate Crime Awareness Week to partners across North Yorkshire and York. Within North Yorkshire Police Hate Crime

·         A dedicated PCSO was in place to lead on engagement with communities and seldom heard voices.

Councillor Andrew Williams queried what was being done in those areas where groups such as PRIDE were not in place, and it was confirmed that liaison officers were involved in a range of other forums including schools.

ii.   What actions are being taken to address the significantly higher levels of female reporting of domestic abuse (DA) and the spike in male domestic abuse victims in Quarter 2?

The update confirmed the DA Tactical Group met fortnightly to review trends in reported incidents and crimes and to direct activity at an operational level where appropriate, The small increase in crimes in Q2 which sat across the geography and not at one single locality was believed to have been as a result of a reporting delay at year end within NYP.

Odette Robson confirmed there had been an increase in Domestic Abuse reporting during the COVID period, but an increase in reporting did not necessarily equate to an increase in incidents and improved reporting was a good thing.  She also confirmed the Vulnerability Board continued to monitor domestic abuse and IDAS had just been recommissioned.

The update also confirmed that IDAS, through commissioned services to support all victims of domestic abuse, had undertaken a significant amount of awareness raising within communities and with professionals. For example, rural and community engagement events with Health Professionals including GP’s, college students, and worked with churches, community centres and libraries etc. This included working with marginalised women’s groups and older people. 

IDAS had also:

·         Employed a specialised domestic abuse advocate for older victims.

·         Undertaken a significant amount of awareness raising with male victims – see a dedicated webpage for male victims Male victims of domestic abuse - IDAS .

·         Sent newsletters to 12,000 subscribers highlighting men as victims of domestic abuse a few times a year. Supporting male victims. Don't miss. (mailchi.mp)

·         Collated blogs from male survivors.Tony's story - IDAS

·         Delivered a multi-agency training package for professionals across North Yorkshire and York covering 10 different modules aimed at raising awareness of signs and indicators of domestic abuse, working with LGTBTQ & Male victims/Children/Older People/Mental health and DA /Trauma etc - more than 2000 individuals from 75 different agencies had received the training.

In regard to the ongoing ‘PREVENT’ work aimed at stopping people from being drawn into terrorism, Odette Robson confirmed regular radicalisation referrals were still being received and the Channel Panel was meeting regularly looking across the County.  Members requested that the next bi-annual update include some more in depth information on the multi-agency Prevent Partnership Board and the local arrangements in place.

In response to Members questions Catherine Clarke confirmed:

·         NYP’s Licensing Department took an active and positive approach, looking at hotspots and crime data and using local knowledge to assess licensing applications and reviews.

·         The Community Safety Hubs were going through a restructure but would remain based within the previous district council boundary areas.  The expectation was that in 12-18months they would be brought more in line with the restructured service.

·         The provision of public space CCTV would not be affected by the restructure.

·         Operation Medusa was ongoing in the Selby area to address county lines issues.

·          NYP officers had body cameras on when deployed, and technology was a key element in modern policing for frontline officers and firearms officers.

·         Low level community tension was monitored to maintain community cohesion as it often related to deeper issues – refugees and other vulnerable residents were sometimes targeted by individuals trying to disrupt a community.

·         The wider partnership perspective was crucial in sharing intelligence, and there had been a number of joint training opportunities in recent months

·         There had been no identifiable spike in hate crimes as a result of the war in Gaza, and no increase that could be linked specifically to elections.

Members thanked the officer for the more detailed performance data and asked that in future less acronyms be used.  They also requested that future updates continue to provide such data together with an overview of any specific work underway to address performance issues

Resolved – That:

i.       The report be noted;

ii.      The next bi-annual update include some more in depth information on the multi-agency Prevent Partnership Board and the local arrangements in place.