West London borough sees spike in sex offences - Met Superintendent says it's a good thing

Crime rates in a West London borough have dropped over the last 12 months with some offences seeing as much as a 47 per cent fall, but there has been a spike in sexual offences. The Met Police said the overall crime rate in Hammersmith and Fulham equates to 845 fewer victims of crime in the last year when compared to the previous period.

The overall drop has however coincided with a hike in recorded instances of sexual offending, with 37 more victims and a jump of 13 per cent in offences. Detective Chief Superintendent Christina Jessah told councillors at a Social Inclusion and Community Safety Policy and Accountability Committee this week that the increase indicates a growing number of people feeling comfortable coming forward.

Cllr Nikos Souslous questioned this interpretation, and DCS Jessah said it is is backed by the improved rate of associated positive outcomes. She said: "It's a really unusual thing to say I'm happy that more reports of this nature are coming in, but it generally in this case means that we are doing something right; that means that people feel confident that we will take action, and actually as a society I think it's being more widely recognised that this kind of crime type is not acceptable."

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Superintendent Knight praised the 'groundbreaking' work of the council's recently-introduced street harassment public space protection order (PSPO) in tackling sexual offences. He said work combatting violence against women and girls is a priority for his team.

Met Police data provided for the 12 months to October 27 shows reductions across the majority of crime areas in Hammersmith and Fulham. These include robberies down 10 per cent, violence with injury down 13.6 per cent, and theft from a motor vehicle down 47 per cent. The hotspots for crime in the borough remain Shepherd's Bush Green and Hammersmith Broadway.

Superintendent Craig Knight, the police leader responsible for Hammersmith and Fulham, told councillors at Wednesday's meeting the reductions have come against the backdrop of significant budgetary pressures for the Met across London.

While the overall crime numbers were down in the borough there were some instances where the figures had risen. As well as sexual offending rising, antisocial behaviour (ASB) was up 14.6 per cent.

An uptick in stop and search

A topic which arguably drew the most debate was that of stop and search. Police officers have the right to stop and search someone without making an arrest. It has proven controversial in-part due to ethnic minorities being overrepresented in the data, though the Met Police describes it as 'targeted and intelligence-led' which helps officers tackle crime.

Superintendent Knight told the committee that Hammersmith and Fulham had bucked the London trend in reporting an increase in stop and search over the last year. He said the local rise is 'incredibly good news', with around 117 stop and searches carried out in the last four weeks.

"The reason I say that is a good thing is because local officers are the best people to do stop and search," he said. "They're the people that can talk to communities about stop and search, why it's important we do stop and search on that street in that ward. Those local officers are the best people to deliver that message."

Asked why its use in Hammersmith and Fulham had increased despite drops across London, Superintendent Knight said one of the potential factors for the decrease elsewhere was due to it being seen as 'a great opportunity to lose your job'. As for the increase in the borough, he said his officers were encouraged to engage with the community on why stop and search is a positive tool.

He said: "The reality is that the public and media perception of stop and search is that it's a tactic that is overused to over-police some communities. We have to be very mindful of that and we have to tackle that head on, because I don't want it to be seen as a disproportionate tactic."

Superintendent Knight agreed with Cllr Omid Miri when he said the public and media perception of stop and search is 'not an incidental thing' and that it matters when considering its use. Later in the meeting, when asking about potential recourse for people who are wrongly stopped and searched, Cllr Miri said: "When either the person that was stopped and searched or a passer-by films the police officer, that actually carries out a very important function, because that's a piece of evidence if bad behaviour or the wrong kind of approach was taken. I appreciate it's uncomfortable and it might make police officers feel vilified but I think it is actually a very important tool."

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