Suella Braverman chairs first Jewish community police taskforce meeting

Suella Braverman has chaired the first meeting of the Home Office’s new Jewish Community Crime, Policing and Security Taskforce.

At a meeting on Tuesday, senior representatives from the Community Security Trust (CST) joined the home secretary, minister for policing Chris Philp, senior police leaders and home office officials for talks aimed at providing positive and practical outcomes to policing issues affecting the community.

It is understood that talks included discussion on improving outcomes around hate crime, following widespread concern within the community that antisemitic incidents over the past few years had not resulted in prosecutions.

After the meeting Braverman tweeted:”Today I chaired the first meeting of our new Jewish Community Crime, Policing and Security Taskforce. Together with CST and policing leaders, we discussed how to enhance Jewish communal security and the police’s work to combat antisemitism.”

Ahead of the meeting Mark Gardner, CST’s chief executive, and head of policy Dave Rich had sounded out the main communal organisations over issues of concern, to ensure they were raised at the first of the regular task force gatherings.

Following the meeting Gardner said:””We sincerely hope that this first meeting of the Jewish Community Crime, Policing and Security Taskforce, chaired by the Home Secretary, will be the start of a process that will see tangible improvements to the policing of antisemitism and anti-Jewish extremism.

“The commitment to this issue shown by the Home Secretary, the Policing Minister and the senior Police officers from across the country who all attended the meeting is deeply appreciated and shows the seriousness with which police and government take the challenge of reducing the anti-Jewish hatred that our community faces.”

The Home Secretary had pledged to set up the task force in her speech earlier this year at the CST’s annual dinner in central London.

Incidents such as the Oxford Street Chanukah bus attack, and the Palestine car convoy on the Finchley Road had raised concern within the community after the police dropped charges or failed to convict suspects.