To elect a Chairman and Vice Chairman for the municipal year.

Cllr Sharma nominated Cllr Sharp for the role of Chairman. This was seconded by Cllr Story and agreed by all Members.

Cllr Sharp nominated Cllr Sharma for the role of Vice Chairman. This was seconded by Cllr Mills and agreed by all Members.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That Cllr Sharp be appointed Chairman and Cllr Sharma be appointed Vice Chairman for the 2018/19 municipal year.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Bhatti and Parish Cllr MacDonald. Apologies were also received from Cllr Rayner, who was not a Panel member but had submitted a question to the Chief Constable and had hoped to ask it in person.

To receive declarations of interests from Members of the Panel in respect of

any item to be considered at the meeting.

None.

To note the Part I minutes of the Crime & Disorder Overview & Scrutiny Panels held on the 20^th March 2018.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Part I minutes of the meeting held on March 20 2018 be agreed as a correct record.

The meeting will commence with a presentation by the Chief Constable and

the Police and Crime Commissioner. Any questions by Members that have

been submitted in advance of the meeting will then be considered and

answered.

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked them for their attendance.

The Deputy Police Crime Commissioner introduced himself and gave the first presentation to the Panel. He stated that there were five strategic priorities for the PCC, which were set out in the Thames Valley Police and Crime Plan for 2017-21 in order for the Chief Constable to develop the Police Delivery Plan. These priorities were vulnerability; prevention and early intervention; reducing re-offending; serious organised crime and terrorism; and police ethics and reform. The Deputy Police Crime Commissioner stated that a single contact point for victims of crime, their families, and witnesses had been brought in-house and was able to provide specialist support. He stated that £120,000 had been awarded through grant funding to organisations that improved knowledge and awareness of female genital mutilation. The Deputy Crime Commissioner stated that FGM was known to be a serious problem, but there was no virtually no reporting of it so it was hard to ascertain the scale of it. A further £900,000 of the PCC’s Community Safety Fund had been allocated to Local Authorities to spend specifically on youth offending prevention.

The Deputy Crime Commissioner stated that a number of inspections had been carried out. The majority of these had been positive but the result of one of the inspections, relating to recording of crime, had been disappointing to Thames Valley Police. The main issue related to whether they were reported as crimes or incidents, and steps had been taken to improve recording of crimes in line with the inspection’s recommendations.

The Deputy Crime Commissioner informed the Panel that there had been a rise in crime in the Thames Valley area, although this had been a lesser increase compared to the national average. Instances of burglary had increased at a higher rate than the national average, and Neighbourhood teams had made a significant focus on tackling this issue. As a result there had been an improvement in relation to burglary figures. The Deputy Crime Commissioner stated that a large proportion of burglaries were being committed by criminals from outside the Thames Valley area.

The Deputy Crime Commissioner stated that instances of stop and search by officers had declined, while instances of knife crime had increased. He stated that there was a similar pattern nationwide, although it did not necessarily follow that the two were connected. However the Deputy Crime Commissioner stated that more training relating to stop and search was being given to officers, and that they were being given greater encouragement to use these powers. He added that the Force had received very few complaints in relation to stop and search.

The Chief Constable gave the second presentation to the Panel. He informed Members that the last year had been exceptionally busy in terms of large operations; policing the Royal Wedding had been the largest operation Thames Valley Police had carried out before being surpassed by the visit of the President of the USA. In addition officers from Thames  ...  view the full minutes text for item 137.

The following future meeting dates are as listed below:

·         12^th December 2018 at 7pm

·         6^th February 2019 at 7pm

·         16^th April 2019 at 7pm

The Chairman informed Members that the dates of the next meetings were as follows:

12 December 2018 at 7pm

6 February 2019 at 7pm

16 April 2019 at 7pm