Agenda and minutes

Councillors M Butler and K Chequer (Sunderland City Council), J Foreman (South Tyneside Council) and Kami Kundi and Jonathan Klajan (Independent Members).

The Panel is asked to approve the minutes of the last meeting held on 23 July 2024.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the last meeting held on the 23 July 2024 were approved as a correct record with the exception of Councillor Clare Penny-Evans was in attendance for the second meeting.

Report of the Police and Crime Commissioner

The PCC gave the panel an update on the Police and Crime Plan fighting crime.

In recent news there has been an explosion of two dwellings within the Benwell area of Newcastle. The PCC wanted to pass her thanks to the emergency services and condolences to the community.

The PCC has recently been to the Pride and Policing awards which has recognised the teams and individuals for their work.

Police officers involved in supporting the de-escalation of disturbances in Sunderland have been recognised for their hard work.

It was rewarding to see the Government recommend the rolling out of a number of projects at the Labour Party Conference that are already in place in Northumbria and being funded through the OPCC. The domestic abuse experts in the control room initiative has been in place across the force for six years already. It is pleasing to see this being rolled our nationally.

The A&E Navigators programme has been successfully rolled out in two of our hospitals within the region – this is where staff are on hand in A&E departments to engage and support people who have attended as a result of a violent injury and provide further support in terms of positive diversionary links. This will soon be rolled out to a further third hospital locally and has been introduced by the Government as a new national initiative. The PCC office has requested a visit from home office to show the work that has been done.

Hate crime awareness week (14^th – 18^th October), launched a £100k community fund for projects to support cohesion to reduce the tensions that led to the disruptions.

Further funding has been for the ‘youth fund’, the monies has now been allocated. The purpose of the funding was for young people to give ideas on how to reduce crime in their areas. Applications were judged by a panel of young people and then signed off by professionals. One program arose from the riots in the Sunderland for a day to celebrate all the different cultures and faiths that go on in West End and across Newcastle, this application was very highly supported.

Opportunities for communities to apply for funding for safe spaces is available.

This month, a report has been released of the police inspectorate for anti-social behaviour. Northumbria police have been cited for good practise to enhance partnership working across the force. Project shield was launched in the summer, this was for the collaboration of police, local authorities and transport.

Serious violence figures have fallen by 23% and anti-social behaviour has fallen by 10%. Take as caution with these figures as this is over a one-year period and we would expect this to go down year on year.

Sunderland city centre, ASB and SV has fallen by 24% which is significant as it included the riots.

The PCC went out with Project Shield officers from Northumbria Police and Sunderland Council and found the experience amazing as you can see the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.

Report of the Chief of Staff and Monitoring Officer.

In accordance with the agreed procedure, an update report about the complaints

and purported complaints against the PCC and every conduct matter recorded by

the Monitoring Officer in May 2024 – September 2024 was submitted.

RESOLVED

i.                 That the information be noted.

Tuesday 10 December 2024 at 2.00pm in Gateshead Civic Centre

Tuesday 10^th December at 2:00pm