Issue - meetings

The Hertfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner set out a contextual picture for the presentation to be given by Deputy Chief Inspector Stuart Orton. He said that there had been significant reductions in crime during lockdown and Police Officers were working hard to prevent people being victims of crime. He expressed a hope that the uplift in police numbers would support this ongoing work.

Deputy Chief Inspector Orton said that the presentation covered findings from data that covered March to October 2020 in respect of knife crime, which had been increasing but from a very low base number of incidents. He referred to mapped county line in the Hertford area and an unmapped line based in Bishop’s Stortford.

Members were advised about the intelligence picture regarding cuckooing and violence in Easts Herts. Deputy Chief Inspector Orton said that levels of knife crime had been increasing across the East Herts Community Safety Partnership since May, after a decrease which had coincided with the restrictions in movement linked to the COVID-19 lockdown that had been imposed in March.

Members were given an overview of CLICM (County Lines Intelligence Collection Matrix) and an assessment of the threats and findings. Deputy Chief Inspector Orton said that identified county lines in Hertfordshire were shown as being based in North and East London.

The Committee was presented with an analysis of cuckooing in East Herts by Deputy Chief Inspector Orton, in the form of a graph and other data that showed numbers and locations of recent cuckooing incidents and details of where this activity had been disrupted by police.

The presentation concluded with an analysis of knife crime in East Herts, broken down by offence type, which included aggravated burglary, assault, possession of an offensive weapon, robbery, serious assault (GBH) and threats to kill. Members were provided with graphs that presented data regarding knife crime in the context of the age of suspects and victims respectively from March to October 2020.

Following the presentation, Members asked a number of questions of the Police and Crime Commissioner and the Deputy Chief Inspector from Hertfordshire Constabulary. After these questions had been answered, Members received the presentation. The Chairman thanked the Police and Crime Commissioner and the Deputy Chief Inspector for presenting to the Committee.

RESOLVED – that the presentation be received.