It was noted that apologies for absence had been received from Councillor Khadka.

It was noted that Councillor Kimmance was substituting for Councillor Khadka.

The Chairman informed the Committee that he had agreed to take  Councillor Purle’s Call for Action as an urgent item, which could be found on the Amended Agenda.

It was noted that Councillors Brindle, Mrs Gooch, McKay, Perry, Round and Vizzard indicated that they wished to speak on Item 11 – Serious, Violent and Organised Crime in Maidstone. 

There were no disclosures by Members or Officers.

Councillors M Burton, Mrs Joy, Mortimer, Powell and D Rose stated that they had been lobbied on Item 11 – Serious, Violent and Organised Crime in Maidstone. 

RESOLVED: That all items be taken in public as proposed.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 19 March 2019 be approved as a correct record and signed.

There were no petitions.

There were no questions from members of the public.

Councillor Call for Action from Councillor Purle

The Chairman informed the Committee that the agenda item would start with a presentation from the Police and the Community Protection Manager which would include a couple of videos to provide context to the subject matter.  He requested that the Committee took a strategic look in terms of the content of the presentation, but also take into account the local perspective. 

The witnesses contributing to the meeting were asked to introduce themselves to the Committee:-

Kent Police - Chief Inspector Ray Quiller and Inspector Mark Hedges

Ilsa Butler Manager from One Maidstone which heads the Business Improvement District for the town centre

Dan Bride, Assistant Director for North and West Kent Adolescent Services and Head of Youth Justice Services in Kent 

The Community Protection Manager, in introducing the report, stated that the presentation would provide some context and real life experiences surrounding the issues highlighted in the report which included an introduction to the new Kent Police Violence Reduction Unit funded by the Home Office. It would also give an update on the state of serious, violent and organised crime within the Maidstone area. 

Members were also informed that the role of the Serious Organised Crime Panel (SOCP) would be explained, together with context around the 4 P approach which was adopted by the SOCP and what is meant by disruption activities.  The presentation would culminate in providing evidence on how knife crime was being tackled, including reporting and intelligence sharing to provide a solution to this problem and would look at how the Police are working with partners to tackle domestic abuse.

Chief Inspector Quiller gave a brief history of his 20 years career in the Police and advised that Kent Police had recently been graded as outstanding and that illustrated how hard the Force worked to maintain and constantly improve the service they provided to the public and had a long and proud tradition of bringing offenders to justice.

He thanked Councillors and Officers for their support in keeping the district safe and outlined various initiatives that had been introduced, particularly in regard to intelligence gathering and CCTV deployment.

Crime in Maidstone

Inspector Hedges presented the crime data comprising of 2018/19 and 2019/20 (financial years). 

The Committee noted that the Police had been recording their data differently since 2018 and therefore it would not be possible to provide comparisons with previous years as they would not be like for like.  Therefore the current data can only be prepared to last year.

Highlights included that overall Crime in Maidstone was down by 6.1% which equated to 400 less victims.  Serious Violent Crime was down to 8.3%, with violent crime down by 8.1% and Public Order offences were down by 36.5% and Robbery incidences down by 31.4%

However, the number of possessions of a weapon were up by 13.5%, Drug Offences were up by 83.7%

Maidstone’s Community Safety Plan 2019-2022

The Committee were reminded of the priorities set within the Community Safety Plan 2019-2022 which were:-

·  Protecting our communities against  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

6.30 p.m. to 9.55 p.m.