Forum topic: Palmers Green ward panel meeting, 30 May 2023

[Original article]

I’ve received a few DM’s concerning the PG Panel (and community interest is positive) making me think more detail might assist.
Neighbourhood policing has been around for a couple of decades, fundamentally cut-back by austerity, we’re still on a bare skeleton of a safer neighbourhood team (SNT) despite the reported 20,000 new police recruits because apparently even more have left. More uniform on our streets in the near term therefore looks unlikely. That arguably puts more onus on “us”.
The Panel are not “police commissioners”, dealing with the full operational spectrum, and certainly not the (999) response team. Instead, it’s a case of understanding what’s happening in PG and based on that deciding where best to steer the SNT to spend more of their time. Naturally that changes as problem aspects ebb and flow.
Hence reporting crime is fundamental to better build the picture, as is reporting softer stuff – those things seemingly outside of the normal, anti-social behaviour (ASB) and others which we are well placed as a community to see. The SNT can be contacted by mail, telephone, catch them on the street (as if), one of their “cuppa with a coppa” sessions, or be creative. The regular Ward Survey, always flagged on PGC, is another route to raise issues, worries and the like.
While these panels are a statutory requirement of the police, the idea is that they are community-led. I think we’ve achieved that hurdle in PG. There’s a strong team in place with a common wish to make PG a better place. So, as well as setting near term policing priorities we’ve started operating a wider agenda, including running with or playing-off items raised at our councillor’s Ward Forum. Hopefully we’ll keep moving forward, contributing as one of PG’s local groups seeking to make for a better PG. Many of PG’s groups are represented on the panel to help ensure alignment.
Panel positions are broadly for a year, or two, so new faces will be needed as time moves on. At this stage I’d be most interested in geographic representation from the south of the ward as well as some of our non-core community segments and cultures. Accurate ward representation is key. The SNT can be contacted with any suggestions.
“Gatherings” of different forms have been raised as problematical to some. This last time it was ASB linked to gatherings in several PG spots, such as the station car park and St Johns. The time before it was gatherings outside some cafes, primarily on Aldermans Hill. Our SNT now have a priority task to cap this recent ASB before it grows throughout the summer. On cafes, the police worked with our council to visit some premises, talking to the owners, and setting helpful guidance. We heard of no problems about the cafes for this last panel.
But we are aware the cafes have touched nerves, so we have been exploring with players who have deep experience in diverse communities, places such as South Africa, Leicester, Bradford, south London and the northeast. Broadly there are two ends of a possible spectrum:
- enforce the law and cultivate a strong-armed response based on lines such as smoking in public places, disturbing the peace and causing an obstruction; through to
- involve, consult, engage and integrate based on mutual awareness and respect.
We’re a very multi-cultural centre and this is the latest culture to take a place within it. It’s going to be for the wider PG community to decide how it wishes to move towards effective integration, because it’s reasonable to assume that they are not going away. I would add I have come across no suggestion from those with experience that waving a big stick has been a solution to integration. Personally, I experience bigger issues elsewhere in PG but this one is a hot topic to enough in PG to indicate that we’re going to need to address it, and that’s us individually as well as collectively. So I leave with a, what are you going to do?