COVENTRY COMMUNITY FORUM
Monday 13th April 2015
Coventry Central Police Station
Little Park Street
Present
Caron McKenna (CM) – Coventry University Students Union
Peter Sturgeon (PDS) – WMP
Rita Jones (RJ) - Coventry Broadgate Spiritualist Church
Dorothy Senior (DS) - Caribean Community
Jarnail Singh Dhaliwal (JSD) – Gurdwara GNP Coventry
Nickey Handley (NK) – Coventry Earth Spirit
Mehru Fitter (MF) – Positive Images Festival
Stefa Paszkowicz (SP) - Coventry Polish Community
Nickey Handley (NK) – Coventry Earth Spirit
Rev Christine Thomas (CT) – Sahra (Coventry) Ltd
Jaskarn Bening (JB) – SEVA School & SHARE Charity
Ismail Kamara (IK) - Celesf Community
Harjinder Singh Sehmi (HSS) – Sikh Community
1 Apologies
Sonia Johnson (SJ) - Barbadian Association
Pat Seaman (PS) – Coventry Voices for Disability
Heather Parker (HP) – Coventry University
Haddassah Dhek (HD) – Coventry Peace House
Balbir Singh Dhami (BD) – Coventry Multi Faith Forum
Surindar Nagra (SN) – Coventry City Council
Jane Manton (JM) – Coventry Earth Spirit
Abrar Aziz (AK) – Al Suffa Outreach
David Williams (DW) – Coventry Cathedral
Derek Jones (DJ) – Coventry Broadgate Spiritualist Church
Inspector Hasson Shigdar (HS) – WMP
2 Introductions
At the start of meeting there were introductions from attendees around the table.
3 Matters Rising/Forum Tasking
There were four existing tasks and one was removed and two new tasks added.
Date / Action / Owner / Update / Status1/9/14 / Police and Crime Commissioner to CCF / Peter Sturgeon/Councillor Tim Sawdon / Speak to Crime Commissioners Department / Retained PCC recently taken office invite to be made after May 2015.
1/12/14 / Feedback Drink Drive Campaign for Christmas Campaign / Inspector Shigdar / Feedback results of Christmas Drink Drive Campaign / Retained feedback May’s meeting.
12/1/15 / Issues with parking in Leicester Causeway / Inspector Shigdar / Inspector Shigdar to discuss with Council. / Feedback to forum at May’s meeting
13/4/15 / Foleshill Shops problems with access on path around Opus Foods / Inspector Shigdar / Inspector Shigdar to discuss with Council. / Feedback to forum at May’s meeting
13/4/15 / Feedback about policy concerning removal of Turban in Custody. / Inspector Shigdar / Inspector Shigdar to feedback to Forum / Feedback at May’s meeting.
3 Stop & Search
Peter Sturgeon conducted the presentation about March’s Stop & Search figures by projector and all the delegates had a copy of the data sent to them prior to the meeting for their scrutiny.
As our statutory scrutiny panel for Stop & Search in Coventry, the Local Policing Unit would like to extend an invitation to CCF members to come out and patrol with officers and see the use of Stop & Search in action. In the last two years, the LPU has received few complaints in relation to how officers have used their Stop & Search powers; however, we do recognise we can always improve upon the positive way in which people who are stopped and search are left feeling. Witnessing this activity first hand will also give you our community advocates, the confidence to talk about what we actually do, not just what we should be doing. Can you feedback to Peter Sturgeon if you wish to take part.
Criminal Justice Services operate a network of quarterly Scrutiny Panels to audit WMP out of court disposals such as cautions and community resolutions. The Eastern panel is led by the Chair of Birmingham and Solihull Magistrates but unfortunately at the February meetings only 2 other people turned up. They are looking for 2 volunteers from the forum to represent Coventry
The Scrutiny Panels meet once a quarter for 2 hours. They read a synopsis of 15 cases picked at random and discuss whether the outcome was, in their opinion appropriate (sadly at times this is not the case!). We feed the comments back to the LPUs and a summary is also fed back to the Home Office Select Committee. Solihull and Coventry work together and the location alternates between the two. For more information contact Peter Sturgeon.
4 Community Tensions/Information Exchange
We went round the table and those with information to share did so.
5 Date and Venue of Next Meeting
The May meeting to take place on Monday 11th May 2015 at 5:30 pm in the Gavin Carlton Room at Coventry Central Police Station Little Park St, Coventry CV1 2JX.
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