Agenda and minutes

ATTENDANCE: Cllr James Hill (JH, Chair), Pauline Woodhouse (PW, Co-Chair), Michael Macleod (MM, NBC), Jamie Wells (JW, NBC), Alice Morgan(AM, Museums), Steve Ewer (SE, Individual), Yvette Uylett (YU, Individual), Jenny Campbell (Inspiration FM), Lara Lloyd (LL, Police), Vicki Rockall (VR, NBC), Morcea Walker (MW, Individual), John Rawlings (JR, Quakers).

APOLOGIES: Diana Belfon, Neelam Aggarwal-Singh, Matthew Toreson.

VR: Slight concern with attendance – late evening could be an issue. Not representative of the Borough of Northampton.

PW: Was discussed in the previous forum. Thought 11am-1pm would be trialled.

VR: Many people cannot engage when the forum is late.

PW: Reiterated that those who receive funding should attend the forum if they have a relation to the forum.

JC: We need a balance, more members of the public, not just professionals.

JC: Professionals would like to talk to those affected, not just other professionals.

VR: Listed all the forums and the times of these forums. Four out of six forums take place during the day. Only Diverse Communities and LGBTQ forum take place in the evening.

JH: People who come to speak often cancel at this forum.

JC: Many forum members say they will come but they do not turn up either.

VR: What can we do to help organisations come in?

LA: We (Police) are looking to get diverse communities around a table but we will not do it in the day as we cannot get people there as they are working. The choices are between a Saturday and the evening.

JC: Forums should not be compared.

JH: How could we reach more people, could NBC retweet?

VR: Comms could do a press release.

JW: Went through what a hate crime is and how to report.

ACTION: MM to send out via forums.

LL: Police analysis done. Not great at sharing 3^rd party information.

LL: Top three reasons why there are hate crime incidents – Brexit, football and terrorism.

LL: There was a hate crime review panel last night with a variety of people around the table e.g. community members, partners and police.

LL: Gave example of third party reporting – disabled man on the bus, he was the subject of an incident, he did not report however, another passenger did.

Q: Is Cllr Golby coming in to talk about hate crime in schools?

A: He had prior commitments tonight.

ACTION: MM to follow up and invite to a future forum.

UPDATE: Cllr Golby no longer the correct person, been referred to Cllr Andre Gonzalez De Savage

JC: This topic is very important to parents but it seems to be the only topic that a representative will not come in and talk about.

LL: Raising awareness in primary schools. Activities to build relationships between students/schools and the police.

PW: Cllrs do have a responsibility to help the community.

PW: The forum as a collective could write a letter to Cllr Golby.

JC: What achievements has there been bar events?

PW: The forum needs to list what has gone on through the forum and what has been a success, then sell/advertise the forum to the public.

JR: Would like to speak about ACES.

JH: Can be added to AOB.

AM: Going to visit most forums. Looking to engage those that may not usually engage in the arts.

AM: Historical exhibition with the aim of user created content. Themes are the places, community activities, living together, standing out.

AM Handed out survey to Forum members.

JC: To contribute, groups are going to need to know where they fit. Where would the Sikh or Afro Caribbean community fit?

AM: That is why we are doing the survey, we are trying to tighten things up once we know who is interested and what they are interested in.

Forum members looked through questionnaire.

AM went through PowerPoint slides and guided Forum members through the questionnaire.

AM: Looking for feedback once the form is complete.

AM: Asked about the chance to go on to Inspiration FM.

PW: What would you do if an answer in the ‘places’ section is not there anymore?

AM: We still want to hear about them, there is a large archive of historical photos of places that are not here anymore e.g. Notre Dame School.

PW: United Social is an example of this, there will be different things which mean a lot to different people. People may want them back.

AM: Although we may not be able to do this, we may take inspiration from this and host relevant events in the future.

MW: The archives show lots of history of Northampton. May be beneficial to have an archiving meeting.

AM: We don’t want you to do things that you think you want but we want to find out what you actually want.

LL: Handed out infographic.

LL: Invited force lead on stop search but they could not make it.

LL: We have had leads but has not been as pushed as much as when Andy was here.

LL: Talked through the infographic – can be found on website. Usually updated every 3 months.

LL: Police UK website is usually a minimum of 3 months out of date.

Q: Why do you search young black males disproportionately?

A: Regardless of why people are being searched. Black people are being stopped more and it is something that is being worked on. Want to look at the areas that people are stopped.

Q: Is it not a case of just looking at police officers if this keeps happening?

A: To counter that, each officer is allocated a number of people to stop and then that is looked into in more detail to see who they stop. That way it can be investigated why if they stop one demographic disproportionately.

Q: What are they doing if they stop the same person more than once? Do the figures reflect that?

A: Not known, will look into it.

Q: Who decides on what demographic the person falls into?

A: They are asked when stopped.

Q: If you analyse why each demographic is stopped, is there a difference why?

A: No, all ethnicities are stopped for the same reasons.

Q: How are people suspected of having drugs?

A: Used to be based on smell, but was it being said as an excuse to stop people? So smell is not enough basis to search someone now. It is based on certain behaviour. There has to be reasonable grounds to do this.

JC: The document says the black demographic was over-stopped. What are the outcomes of these stops? Are they different to the other/white demographic?

JC: Talked about Duwayne Brooks report.

LL: Andy Cox work still in place.

JC: Legitimacy report explains that people are confused about the views of police officers. Published in the chronicle and echo.

LL: I would have to read the report to answer that.

LL: Andy’s work significantly improved outcome rates of stop and search.

LL: Reasonable grounds panel – when there are concerns about a stop, others are bought in to who have been stopped or are concerned with someone who has been, to see if the stop was reasonable.

JC: Three quarters of sample in Northamptonshire have been stopped, searched and no further action.

LL: No. of stops are less and positive outcome rate is getting better.

JC: What percentage of young people feel negative about Northamptonshire Police?

LL: Cannot be answered but PCCO has had Youth Forum commissioned.

JC: How do young people of ethnic minorities feel?

LL: Police powers meeting quarterly – specific to young people so will be able to be answered in time.

JC: Young people would like police officers to come to Inspiration FM.

LL: Would attend in person with others.

JR: Yvette came because of ACES day centre and it wasn’t included in the minutes. The building is now up for sale and they are looking for different premises.

JR: would look for a suitable venue, one day a week.

PW: We hadn’t heard what Yvette said from ACES was official so it was a topic that couldn’t be discussed with certainty.

MW: Would like to have it noted that the closure of ACES day centre is why YU started coming to the Forum.

22^nd March 2018 (11am-1pm)