Crime Reduction - Helping to Reduce Crime in Your Area

CDRPs

CDRPs have a statutory duty to undertake an audit of crime and disorder, anti-social behaviour (as well as other behaviour adversely affecting the environment) and misuse of drugs (substance abuse in Wales) in their area every three years. They are required to formulate and implement a strategy for combating crime and disorder, ASB and the misuse of drugs etc. They adopt a joint problem solving approach to tackling these issues.

They are responsible for contributing to Government PSA targets on:

• reducing crime

• reassuring the public, reducing the fear of crime and anti-social behaviour

• reducing the harm caused by illegal drugs including substantially increasing the number of drug misusing offenders entering treatment through the Criminal Justice System

• increasing voluntary and community engagement, especially amongst those at risk of social exclusion. Other local crime reduction targets are agreed, based on local priorities.

Common interests

There are inevitably overlaps between the two agendas and CDRPs and LCJBs can reinforce each other's work. Key areas of common interest, according to stakeholders, are:

• tackling prolific and other priority offenders

• engaging communities – including work to increase confidence in the CJS

• reducing domestic violence

• reducing re-offending

Activity in each of these areas will – in turn – help the LCJB and CDRP achieve their individual targets. (This is not an exhaustive list and if this approach is useful will be added to it over time).

LCJBs

LCJBs are responsible for joining up the CJS at the local (CJS area) level and are increasingly involved in managing change across the CJS.They are responsible for contributing to Government targets on:

• bringing more offences to justice (OBTJ)

• increasing public confidence in the criminal justice system, including the confidence of BME communities.

They are also responsible for local delivery of other national targets in respect of:

• enforcement

• reducing ineffective trials

• increasing the satisfaction of victims and witnesses

• Persistent Young Offenders

CDRPs

Statutory duty to consult local communities on the findings of their three-yearly crime reduction strategy audits and reflect those results in their community safety strategies

Ongoing work as part of their responsibility for reassuring the public, reducing the fear of crime and anti-social behaviour (PSA 2)

Examples of community engagement work:

• Inform – newsletters, leaflets, websites

• Consult – audits, surveys, questionnaires, focus groups

• Involve – neighbourhood panels, local democratic accountability of elected members of LAs, police liaison with the public

Possibilities for joint working

When engaging communities, CDRPs and LCJBs should seek to promote each others’ work wherever possible. For example, CDRPs can help to inform communities of the work the LCJB is doing to reform the CJS and in particular pass on to communities information on how issues of local concern are being dealt with by the CJS. In return, the LCJB can help raise awareness of CDRPs’ priorities for action on local issues within the CJS

CDRPs, with their access to local partners, can help the LCJB identify and tap into key local communities. CDRPs can allow the LCJB to add CJS-specific questions to questionnaires and other community engagement processes, focus groups etc.

Joint financing of individual projects

The LCJB can provide access to CJS-wide media and can work to communicate key community safety/fear of crime issues through their local media links

The LCJB can add value by rationalising approaches to certain communities across the CJS area, e.g. information for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender communities

There is also the potential for a joint approach in relation to unpaid work. Under the Community Payback initiative over 5 million hours of unpaid work have been undertaken by offenders. CDRPs and LCJBs could play an important role in enabling more local people to have a say in the type of work undertaken and in making this agenda more visible

LCJBs

To improve public confidence in the criminal justice system (PSA 2). Community engagement is one part of delivering on the PSA.The others are communications, work specifically to improve BME confidence and dedicated work on victims and witnesses

- CJS agencies will all have their own programmes of work contributing to community engagement and it is important that the LCJB should co-ordinate and add value to this work rather than duplicate it

Examples of community engagement work:

• Inform – newsletters, open days, roadshows etc.

• Consult – on communities’ priorities for the CJS to incorporate in planning

• Involve – e.g. projects to increase public participation in delivery of justice and in supporting the work of the CJ agencies

CDRPs

Responsibilities:

- Statutory duty to conduct a three-yearly audit of crime disorder anti-social behaviour and to publish a crime reduction strategy

Examples of DV work:

- Develop local strategy for DV as part of CDRP work plan and in line with BVPI 225

- Develop early intervention strategy for local areas to encourage victim and 3rd party reporting

- Make provision for DV victims through Supporting People programme

- Provide specialist support for DV victims and their children

Possibilities for joint working

- Consider joint commissioning of services (co-location of resources; identifying and bringing together existing resources)

- Joint ownership for service delivery

- A ‘one-stop shop’ approach which allows the victim to access the services of a broad range of agencies by approaching or referral to a single point of contact, with dual accountability

- Pro-active intervention policy agreed and adhered to

- Support for independent perpetrators programme to agreed national standard. Develop multi-agency risk assessment conferences (Maracas) for victims to complement the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) for offenders. Develop information sharing protocols. Establishment of a Domestic Abuse Sub-Group/Co-ordinator reporting to both CDRPs and LCJBs, with membership drawn from both

- Designated DV sub-groups will benefit from a membership drawn from both LCJBs and CDRPs

- DV co-ordinators can perform a key function in bridging the gap between LCJBs and CDRPs

LCJBs

Responsibilities:

- LCJBs have no specific targets in relation to DV and activity here tends to fall within their wider work to bring more offences to justice, improve levels of public confidence and provide improved support for victims of crime. The LCJB Victim and Witness Delivery Toolkit 7 suggests practical ways in which LCJBs can work in this field

Examples of DV work:

- Ensure that approved training (Centrex) on DV is delivered to:

• Police

• CPS

• Judiciary/magistrates

- Ensure that NPS perpetrator programmes are in place

- Develop a Specialist DV court

- Develop specialist advice and support for victims of DV

- Ensure that MAPPA processes include high risk DV perpetrators