Sheffield Scrutiny Panel Meeting Minutes
Date:28th July 2010
Venue:Quaker Meeting House, St James Street, Sheffield
Attendees:Ruslan Takoogla (RT)
Dr Salah Sherif (SS)
Joanne Lowe (JL)
Michelle Cook (MC)
Billy Khan (BK)
Sylvana Mansell (SM)
Dale Smith (DS)
Peter Chapman (PC)
Eddie Gill (EG)
Aloysius Lalloo (AL)
Andrew Bolland (Chair) (AB)
Adrian Fox (AF) (SYP)
- Minutes and actions from last meeting
The minutes were agreed as an accurate reflection of the last meeting.
Actions:
AB confirmed that to ensure to ensure that disability hate crimes are considered by the hate crime scrutiny panel that in future any cases identified will be automatically brought to the panel, rather than subject to random selection.
- Feedback from Last Months Cases
K15439/2009 (case involved racial abuse aimed at mother and children as they exited a bus, the panel wanted further information regarding existence of CCTV and attempts to seek drivers knowledge of incident)
AF identified that the officer in the case had been contacted and confirmed the bus did not have CCTV camera’s so this was not available. The officer had also contacted the bus company to identify the driver of the bus.
The operations manager at the bus company had identified that if any incidents had been identified by the driver then an incident report would have
been submitted. Following identification of bus driver, they confirmed that they were unaware of any incident that had taken place so would not have been in a position to provide additional information about the case.
AB enquired what the officers views were on being asked to provide further information regarding the case to the panel. AF identified that officers were aware of the nature of the panel and that they accepted the need to provide further information and carry out further enquiries if this was requested.
K109322/2009 (incident involving homophobic abuse aimed at couple visiting a property and comments contained within officers notes on case)
AF identified that the officer in question had now left the force so it was not possible to raise the issue directly with him. The supervising officer had been contacted and identified that the comments made where not appropriate and should not have formed part of the decision process. The supervising officer had reviewed the case and identified that as is normal practice the victims had been contacted regarding both the investigation generally and the outcome and were happy with actions that had been taken. They did suggest that some of the actions they had taken at the time of the incident were intended to directly respond to the actions of the alleged perpetrators.
K18259/2009 (incident involving assault with reference to baseball bat where the panel wanted clarification on possible forensic tests on the weapon, also query regarding lack of VPS)
AF identified that the report of the use of a baseball bat was in fact erroneous, the weapon not actually existing so by default no forensic investigation possible.
Relative to lack of Victim Personal Statement (VPS), AF identified that he had raised this as an issue that had been identified on a number of occasions by the Hate Crime Panel, at a recent Hate Crime Strategy Group meeting and this had resulted in an instruction being given to all officers in the city that they must ensure VPS is taken when taking victim statements.
- Case Reviews
K106965/2009 (Incident involving criminal damage at a property motivated by hatred based on Gender Identity)
Investigation resulted in conviction, no issues identified by panel
K5680/2010 (incident involving Homophobic harassment)
The panel asked questions about CCTV, it was confirmed this had been checked and did not assist the investigation. Whilst potential perpetrators had been identified the decision had been taked to Release due to Insufficient Evidence. The panel requested further information on this decision.
Action: AF to seek further information regarding the decision and this to be forwarded to panel members for consideration
K42015/2010 (Incident involving criminal damage to a taxi by male and female perpatrators)
Within the investigation, two perpatrators were known to be wearing football shirts, having been picked up by taxi close to Sheffield train station and taken to home location. It was not clear from the paperwork if the address was known but house to house investigations were identified in location of incident. Ultimately the perpetrators were not identified.
Action: Enquiries to be made of officer regarding nature of house to house enquiries.
Action: Checks to be made why officer did not consider contacting football club to see if they could assist with identification
Action: Checks to be made with officer to see if railway station CCTV was reviewed
K13834/2010 (incident involving assault and threats made to staff member at fast food takeaway relative to Racially motivated hate incident)
Whilst the incident appeared to have been investigated appropriately and a number of statements taken, the alleged perpetrators had ultimately being issued with adult cautions and juvenile warning. One of the Adult cautions had been issued in error as the perpetrator was only 17, this led to the crime being filed as undetected. Discussion took place regarding the outcome of the case, but no further actions required
- Any Other Business
AB reminded the panel that if they had any related information or events they felt suitable for publication on Stop Hate UK website they should forward to AB who could arrange for the information to be added.
Action: All
Discussion took place regarding setting up of a Facebook page for the group to allow communications between members and to publicise our work
Action: AB to investigate and set up
AF identified that Sheffield BCU had now issued core standards of service for delivering service relative to violent and racist (all hate) incidents. This embedded recommendations made by the panel regarding Resource Management Sergeant contacting victims within one hour of officers attendance to provide reassurance and support, and identifying timescales for contact with victims
Action: AB to publicise via website
- The next meeting will be held early in September, date and location to be advised.
Andrew Bolland
New Business Manager
Stop Hate UK