Safer Croydon Partnership update – 8 August 2023

Cllr Ola Kolade – Follow at @MrOlaKolade on Twitter

Cllr Ola Kolade, the Cabinet Member for Community Safety, (pictured left), writes,

“Over the last 12 months we have prioritised making Croydon safer through statutory and community organisations working in collaboration to tackle the challenges we face in the borough. I am writing to you with an update on progress made so far and upcoming plans towards our 3 strategic priorities which are Improving Youth Safety, Tackling Violence against Women and Girls, Tackling Crime Hotspots.

Police update – From Superintendent Mitch Carr (Croydon)

 

• A busy period for Croydon Police including policing the coronation of HM The King, numerous protests, significant sporting events alongside the business as usual with some really challenging incidents.
•  Unfortunately, the period 23^rd May -21^st June saw five murders in Croydon. All incidents were seemingly unrelated. There have been suspects arrested and charged for all of these tragic incidents.
• Worked in partnership to ensure the safe delivery of a number of events: Croydon Mela, Croydon Festival, Addington Carnival, South Norwood Country Show, Old Coulsdon Village Fete & more. These provided fantastic engagement opportunities for the local policing teams to meet community members including children & young people.
• Robbery – we are seeing significant reductions (16%) in robbery offences across the borough. This included an operation by the local team in Purley where two robbers were arrested. Since 20^th June there have been no robbery offences in the Purley hotspot area.
• Op Red Hill underway in Croydon Town Centre – providing surge activity working alongside BID rangers, trading standards & other partners to tackle crime, disorder & anti-social behaviour. Issues around schoolchildren gathering after school around Church Street have significantly improved. The current focus is on North End in response to community feedback. The schools team is actively planning the “back to school” operation.
• New Met for London event at Fairfield Halls, Croydon – 8^th September – all partners are warmly invited to attend and hear from the Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley QPM: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/685440871097

Youth Safety & Tackling Violence against Women and Girls

• Increased the pace of how we respond to incidents to ensure within hours of an incident happening, statutory and community partners are effectively responding in the areas affected.
• We have put extra youth outreach resources for 6 months into the areas that need it most such as New Addington, Croydon Town Centre, Thornton Heath, Purley and Shrublands. We are currently exploring long term solutions for these areas.
• Launch of the first stage of a Youth Safety plan in September 2023, co-creating this with young people and the Community Safety Engagement Board over the next year to ensure the plan achieves the desired impact.
• Initiated work towards launching a Borough wide Tackling violence against Women and Girls strategy.
• Improved partnership working with Bromley and Lambeth to better manage high risk young people who cross borough boundaries.

Anti-Social Behaviour(ASB)/Crime Hotspots

• Our targeted ASB hotspot locations are New Addington, Thornton Heath, Town Centre, we will continue to monitor the decision to focus on these locations through crime data and local intelligence.
• Launched the Town Centre Public Safety Protection Order (PSPO) and in consultation to introduce a PSPO in Thornton Heath.
• Upgrading the Borough’s CCTV network which is critical for helping deter crime and catch violent offenders.
• Increasing police resource in the town centre to better help prevent violence.
• Recently delivered a ‘Town Centre Day of Action’ in partnership between Police, Council, Croydon BID, Change Grow Live, Salvation Army and other support agencies to address ASB issues whilst offering support services to those who might need it.

Programmes and Projects to support our strategic priorities.

• Introduced the Community Safety Engagement Board to develop a strategic approach to working with community and faith groups.
• The Engage programme is a new project based in Police custody so that every young person going into custody gets an offer to support.
• The Croydon Local Intervention Programme offers bespoke 1-2-1 interventions for young people who are just below the threshold of criminality to stop them entering the criminal justice system.
• The Girls project is a new project based on recent events in Church Street, aimed at preventing escalation of violence and behaviour that could lead to criminal charges.
• Youth Justice Skills Mill is a Youth Justice service employing young people on a six-month basis to gain employment, skills, and qualifications.
• Introduced a Dedicated substance misuse board, a new joint public health & community safety approach to tackle all aspects of Croydon’s drug problems, including drug market supply, treatment, and support.
• Refreshed engagement and relationship with Croydon Business Improved District and businesses to tackle crime and disorder in the town centre.
• Introduced the Safer Streets Group, a monthly multi-agency approach to bring together the ASB team, Police, Housing, Homelessness support and other interested groups to tackle persistent crime/ASB issues in hotspot locations.

Thank you for your continuous commitment and dedication to making Croydon safer. We are aware our community and faith partners have extensive programmes that also contribute to these strategic priorities. The only way we will achieve sustainable impact is by working together, in true partnership, between schools, communities, youth & faith groups, police, council, probation, health, the fire service and businesses to continue our efforts to keep Croydon safe.

Regards,

Cllr Ola Kolade

Cabinet Member for Community Safety & Safer Croydon Partnership Chair