There were no changes to committee membership.

There were no apologies for absence.

To confirm and sign, as a correct record, the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 8 October 2024.

The minutes of the meeting held on 8 October 2024 were confirmed and signed as a correct record.

Members are invited to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests or other registrable and non-registrable interests in items on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

Having been in post for nearly a year the borough commander had taken the opportunity to review the borough policing priorities, and based on feedback from residents and businesses had replaced road safety with protecting business communities.  Road safety remained a county-wide priority policed by a strategic command unit.

Antisocial behaviour within the borough remained a high priority, with Addlestone town the area with the most recorded incidents and the area targeted by Operation Chariot, a Home Office funded initiative designed to address anti-social behaviour, drug-related activity, and serious violence in 15 ‘hotspot areas’ across Surrey.

A total of 236 antisocial incidents had been reported in the borough during the previous reporting period, which was a reduction on the previous reporting period and lower than Spelthorne and Elmbridge.  However caution was urged as that period took in Christmas and New Year, with pubs and other leisure facilities significantly quieter over that period in recent years.

Community Protection Warnings continued to be one of the main tools in dealing with antisocial behaviour, with Community Protection Notices utilised when warnings had been breached.  Partial closures on addresses had been utilised to both protect a vulnerable resident and tackle antisocial behaviour.

During the meeting the Committee praised the borough commander and his team for the response to the recent aggravated burglary in Woking borough that spilled into Runnymede, as well as the effort that went into delivering the volume of burglary prevention letters.  Further praised was passed on in relation to the team’s open and proactive manner in engaging with residents and listening to their concerns.

A short update was provided on Operation Shield, which was a cross-border project that helped to address violence against women and girls and involved officers blending into an environment.  This would again be utilised on Valentine’s night.

A new performance product had been introduced that allowed the police to target persistent offenders, which had seen significant sentences handed out for high-value thefts.

The borough commander noted his disappointment in the lack of progress on burglary prevention, and spoke of the difficulty in tracking organised crime groups from London that send people to the area – often South American nationals – to commit the offence.  Exploratory work was taking places with other forces around opportunities for preventative measures, and whilst visible policing remained an extremely effective tactic, with key times and areas being identified, finite resources inevitably impact its effectiveness.

Whilst shoplifting offences had increased by around 20%, the borough commander described this as a positive as it evidenced that businesses were engaging with the police, whereas historically there had been a level of apathy due to a combination of factors such as the low value of the goods taken, limited CCTV or a mistaken belief that the offence would not get solved.  However, the solved outcome rates for shoplifting had also increased, and the importance of reporting offences was once again stressed.

Further preventative action was planned around the rollout of an app for businesses to communicate  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.