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'Croydon Council Expenditure 2008/2009'.
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Tackling Crime
The council works in partnership with the police and other agencies to reduce crime and anti social behaviour (ASB) as set out in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and other legislation.
Scanning recorded crime statistics over the past 10 years (taking 2000 as the baseline) the partnership achieved a 9.13% reduction in 2009; however during the last two years crime has increased.
Recent achievements include:
36% reduction in serious youth violence and knife crime for the period October 2008 to January 2009 compared with the same period for the previous year. This was primarily due to the multi agency initiative badged `Safe for All' focussing on those crimes
More offenders into effective drug treatment, working with our police and probation colleagues
14 premises shut down for dealing in Class A drugs
At the same time though we have seen an increase in burglary and theft from motor vehicles.
A performance summary on our 5 key local crime targets is set out below:
NI 15 Reduce the serious violent crime rate, is on target
NI 16 Reduce the serious acquisitive crime rate by 6% by 2010/11, is off target
NI40 Increase the number of drug users in effective treatment by 11% by 2010/11, current performance exceeds the target
NI 111 Reduce first time entrants to the Youth Justice System aged 10 -17, is on target
Achieve a 48% sanctioned detection rate for domestic violence, current performance exceeds the target
Increase the number of successful early interventions to prevent anti-social behaviour from 75 to 87 by 2010/11, current performance exceeds the target
The Safer Croydon Partnership is also responsible for tackling ASB and we continue to make innovative and effective use of legislative powers to tackle ASB through civil action and enforcement.
Neighbourhood Enforcement Officers (NEOs) were first introduced by the council in 2009 and have powers to investigate incidents of ASB, gather evidence, interview witnesses, conduct surveillance and attend court as professional witnesses. They also issue fixed penalty notices (FPNs) to deal with issues such as graffiti, fly tipping trade and domestic waste, dog fouling, litter and nuisance/abandoned vehicles with over 529 FPNs issued in the past year. The NEOs are fully integrated with the Police Safer Neighbourhood Teams and have their daily tasks allocated on a daily basis by them, another example of excellent partnership working.
Preventing crime is a key objective particularly youth crime as young people are the group most at risk of becoming a victim of crime. In response to this and council has commissioned a bespoke Turnaround Centre which will enable young people and their families to access services and resources to support those at risk and enable young people and their families to live lives free of crime and victimisation.