Report on Government Office for London Personal Robbery Project
Lee Kettlewell (Home Office)
This report considers the rise in personal robbery experienced in London during 2006 and early 2007, the efforts made to tackle it, the impact of the actions taken and the lessons learned. In particular the report describes what can be taken from the activities and experiences of robbery reduction, mainstreamed and applied to other crime types in the future. The report was written by Lee Kettlewell of the Police & Partnerships Standards Unit of the Home Office while on a secondment to Government Office for London over the period January - November 2007. The report also has an annex which is the result of a piece of work done working with Police and Local Authority analysts in Ealing, assisted by work done with the same in Hillingdon, and under the guidance and direction of Professor Gloria Laycock of the Jill Dando Institute. Whilst the opinions expressed in the report and annex do not represent an official Home Office view (neither should they be considered an indication of Home Office policy) they have been endorsed by Government Office for London, London Community Safety Partnership and London Safer Streets Partnerships Board and are a contribution to tackling this serious crime type. Although the report whilst solely focussing on London may be of interest to practitioners across England & Wales and feedback would be welcome. Any examples of effective practice should be notified to lee.kettlewell@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk .
Title: Report on Government Office for London Personal Robbery Project, January - November 2007
Author: Lee Kettlewell
Number of pages: 23 (plus appendices)
Date published: February 2008
Availability: Download main report 
PDF 141Kb; Download Appendix A (Ealing analysis) PDF 809Kb
Key findings
Personal robbery was up 6% across London as at June 2006
The large increase in robbery in 2006 was driven in a major part by robberies involving youth on youth
Action was taken under a national strategy agreed by the Home Office to deliver a sustainable response to this rising robbery trend. This included:
Engaging and up-skilling CDRPs
Targeting key 31 CDRPs with the highest increases - 17 of which were in London
Working with industry to reduce the mobile phone as a ‘driver' of robbery
Communications
Circulating a summary of the key document "Tackling robbery: Practical lessons from the Street Crime Initiative" published by the Home Office in 2004.
The Safer Streets Partnership Board was set up by the London Community Safety Partnership in the latter half of 2006
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) commenced Operation Safer Streets to focus on street crime including personal robbery
Government Office for London (GOL) worked with all target boroughs and some jointly with the Jill Dando Institute (JDI) to ensure that a problem solving approach was adopted by boroughs
Target boroughs were required to produce robbery action plans based on a problem solving approach such as the SARA model
Ealing and Hillingdon received particular focus and support from the JDI
Not enough in-depth detailed analysis and definition of specific robbery problems
The model analysis and plan produced by working with Ealing is available to download PDF 809Kb
The MPS maintained a focus on tackling personal robbery from the inception of Operation Safer Streets and this has continued well into 2007
The impact has coincided with but probably resulted in, a reduction in personal robbery offences of 19% compared to the same period in 2006-7
The MPS has striven to achieve this by tightening up its procedures but it has been assisted by wider partnership activity around the action plans.
More needs to be done particularly around schools and transport if the reductions in personal robbery are to be sustainable
Main recommendations
The learning and key principles from this project can be and ought to be applied across all crime types. These are:
regular monitoring of the level of incidents.
identification of any emerging trends that both require further in-depth problem solving analysis
development of multi agency actions aimed at tackling the specific problems identified
monitoring and review of effectiveness and impact
evaluation and mainstreaming of learning
The MPS need to maintain a dedicated focus on robbery in boroughs with high volumes and to generally maintain a tight management of handling personal robbery offences
The MPS need to ensure that blockages around bail and the prosecution of specific cases are raised at senior levels and shared with strategic bodies in order to affect a better outcome
CDRPs need to ensure that effective horizon scanning is regularly undertaken and that they encourage wider partners such as Children's Services, Education and Welfare, Housing departments, YOTs, Street Wardens etc to take a proactive approach to personal robbery. This can be achieved by regular attendance at joint tasking meetings as appropriate.
CDRPs can also ensure that activities from key local authority departments such as environmental services (lighting, dealing with graffiti, improving physical security, hedge cutting etc), commercial (important roles for Trading Standards Officers and licensing officers) and surveillance (improved use of CCTV resources and town centre management) are deployed in response to specific problems identified in the analysis and this should lead to sustainable reductions in robbery and other crime types
Key agencies like the MPS and the CDRP need to undertake a risk assessment of discontinuing certain tactics and for providing additional resources.
Training and recruiting of analysts is to be prioritised by the MPS and Local Authorities
Analysts to be freed up to concentrate on in-depth problem solving analysis rather than being bogged down in performance management
Action plans are a good focus for activity and in bringing the partners together but they must be jointly owned, implemented and evaluated
There is a need to consider commissioning research into the extended bullying that manifests itself as robbery of youth on youth and between gangs and groups of youths.
Effective Practice advice should be provided for MPS and CDRPs by Home Office and Government Office
Schools and transport are key priority areas for further work such as
Police must always record information on victims' and offenders' schools on crime reports.
Information and intelligence from Safer Schools Officers (SSOs) needs to be regularly fed into robbery problem solving analysis.
The need to work with schools and Children's Services which is a significant shortfall at present as is the need to work specifically with Head Teachers, governors, trades unions and PTAs
Linking the work of Safer Schools Officers /Partnerships with Safer Neighbourhood Teams and Safer Transport Teams
Considering mobile phone policy within schools i.e. whether to allow them or not on premises etc
The MPS need to ensure effective guidance is given to SSOs and Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) who should be deployed in primary schools as early interventions and crime prevention messages are vital.
The MPS should also investigate a more corporate approach to the deployment and use of SSOs and the development of genuine, effective Safer Schools Partnerships.
British Transport Police (BTP) and MPS Transport Operational Command Unit (TOCU) analysis to be regularly shared with boroughs. There is a need for more problem solving activity and joint tasking e.g. between BTP and TOCU.
The line of route transport project is a critical piece of work that requires high level support and the involvement of key agencies
GOL has a key role to play in terms of advice and support for CDRPs and key agencies particularly in promoting effective practice and joint working across borough boundaries and encouraging joint work between boroughs that share similar problems but are not adjacent to one another.
The Criminal Justice System needs to be engaged regarding such areas as sentencing policy, the impact of the early release of offenders, the charging and prosecution of offenders and the application of bail restrictions etc.
Mobile phone manufacturers and other key businesses need to be kept in a robust dialogue so as to constantly improve technological target hardening - the new iPhones will be an obvious target for robbers.
There is a critical need to improve the take up of Immobilise and the prosecution of illegal unblocking of blocked phones by rogue traders.
Lessons from the recent Halloween/Fireworks Night joint partnership working initiative where six boroughs were funded by GOL need to be applied to other key seasonal robbery peaks
Mainstreaming the learning from this project needs to be done in the context of the National Standard hallmarks of an effective partnership introduced by the Home Office as part of the CDRP reform programme
Getting a copy
Download Report on Government Office for London Personal Robbery Project PDF 141Kb
Disclaimer
The report is a personal view and has been endorsed by the Government Office for London, the London Community Safety Partnership and the London Safer Streets Partnership Board. Whilst the opinions expressed do not represent an official Home Office view, nor should they be considered an indication of Home Office policy, they are a contribution to the crucial work of tackling this serious crime type.
Last update: Wednesday, March 05, 2008