Overview and Scrutiny Committee - Thursday, 18th September, 2025 7.00 pm - Agenda and minutes

To receive an update from Chief Inspector Gillian Cox, Hampshire Police, and David Lipscombe, Community Safety Manager, on current issues across the Borough, positive news stories and challenges within the policing and community safety sector.

The Portfolio Holder for Pride in Place and Neighbourhood Services, Cllr Christine Guinness, has been invited to attend the meeting.

The Committee welcomed Chief Inspector Gillian Cox, Hampshire Police and the Council’s Community Safety Manager, David Lipscombe who were in attendance to report on current issues, challenges and positive news stories within the policing and community safety sector. Also in attendance was the Portfolio Holder for Pride in Place and Neighbourhood Services, Cllr Christine Guinness.

The Chief Inspector (CI) gave her presentation which provided an overview of the past 12 months. It was noted that CI Cox’s would be moving on to a new role the following week and the new Chief Inspector would be Alex Reading. Alex was an experienced officer in district policing and had chosen to get back to operational policing in Rushmoor and Hart.

The past year had been very busy, with a reduction in crimes recorded against the previous year. There had, however, been an increase in shop lifting over the year and initiatives had been introduced to help reduce the number of incidents. In addition, a decrease in drug offenses had been recorded and it was advised that robust measures were in place to deal with weapon and knife crime.

CI Cox reported on anti-social behaviour (ASB) data. It was noted that there had been a decrease in incidents of ASB in the past twelve months with 451 incidents reported against 470 in the previous year. The data was monitored monthly and considerable work had been undertaken, particularly in Farnborough town centre where there had been a resurgence of incidents, to address ASB.  The Committee discussed the different types of ASB activity and noted that these could vary widely. The Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBO) were a good tool for tackling ASB and continued to be used as required. It was noted that there were currently 13 individuals with a CBO and seven individuals were in prison as a result of a breach of their CBO.

The Committee noted that Operation Sentinel, a Home Office led initiative tackling serious violence hotspots, operated in both town centres. Officers were required to patrol specific areas at set periods and had achieved 96% compliance with these requirements only missing 10 planned patrols. However, it was reported that an additional 1,422 unplanned patrols had been undertaken across the two town centres over the past twelve months.

In relation to Formal Action Taken (FAT) outcomes on criminal activity, it was noted that the number had dropped on the previous year. Resources and demand were contributing factors to the drop and although it was felt that there were enough officers to meet daily demand, more officers would always be welcome – it was difficult to follow up on incidents when officers were continually being deployed to other reported incidents. It was however reported that average handling and response times had improved on both 999 and 101 calls.

The Committee discussed engagement, in particular the role of the Local Bobbys. It was noted that the Local Bobby, of which there were four across the whole Borough, was to be involved in the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

To consider the Work Plan for the 2025/26 Municipal Year (copy attached).

The Committee noted the current Work Plan.

It was noted that the item on Community Engagement would be fully scoped at the next meeting of the Progress Group and that currently Serco were scheduled to attend the December meeting.