Police in the community
Regular visitors to my website will know of my longstanding support for both the concept and operation locally of police safer neighbourhood teams.
These teams of regular police officers and community support officers provide a visible uniformed presence on our streets and estates that both deter and detect crime. Without doubt they have been a phenomenal success not just here in Putney, Roehampton & Southfields, but right across London. Indeed, they are being rolled out across the country - everyone wants to see bobbies back on the beat and SNTs deliver that.
Sergeant Nigel Mussett leads West Hill's SNT, which has made tremendous inroads into tackling local concerns and crime hotpots in his ward - in particular tackling drugs issues on local estates and addressing a street disorder problem associated with a small number of unruly local pupils at the end of the school day.
Since SNTs have a very obvious and necessary community focus to their activity, it is not surprising that each team (we have six here) tries to engage directly with local residents through public meetings and ward panels. I attend as many of these as I can and recently popped along to a public meeting held by the West Hill team, one of the most successful of the 20 teams in the borough.
Five members of the police SNT were present, including Sgt Mussett, along with myself and a member of the council's housing department who were there as observers. Only four members of the public turned up. Sadly, this is not uncommon. I have attended Southfields ward meetings with as few as six people in attendance. The Roehampton SNT achieves a better turnout, with often as many as 20-25 members of the public present. And when I was a councillor in Tooting, we used to get similar numbers along to our meetings, although as councillors we worked hard to deliver this.
I think the police do a great job tackling crime, but they are still falling short of the mark when it comes to community consultation and engagement. I have some ideas how things could be improved, but I'd be interested to receive your ideas and suggestions as to how the police can get more local people to come along to these meetings. These meetings genuinely do determine the focus of activity for the SNTs, so local residents have every reason to get involved.
These teams of regular police officers and community support officers provide a visible uniformed presence on our streets and estates that both deter and detect crime. Without doubt they have been a phenomenal success not just here in Putney, Roehampton & Southfields, but right across London. Indeed, they are being rolled out across the country - everyone wants to see bobbies back on the beat and SNTs deliver that.
Sergeant Nigel Mussett leads West Hill's SNT, which has made tremendous inroads into tackling local concerns and crime hotpots in his ward - in particular tackling drugs issues on local estates and addressing a street disorder problem associated with a small number of unruly local pupils at the end of the school day.
Since SNTs have a very obvious and necessary community focus to their activity, it is not surprising that each team (we have six here) tries to engage directly with local residents through public meetings and ward panels. I attend as many of these as I can and recently popped along to a public meeting held by the West Hill team, one of the most successful of the 20 teams in the borough.
Five members of the police SNT were present, including Sgt Mussett, along with myself and a member of the council's housing department who were there as observers. Only four members of the public turned up. Sadly, this is not uncommon. I have attended Southfields ward meetings with as few as six people in attendance. The Roehampton SNT achieves a better turnout, with often as many as 20-25 members of the public present. And when I was a councillor in Tooting, we used to get similar numbers along to our meetings, although as councillors we worked hard to deliver this.
I think the police do a great job tackling crime, but they are still falling short of the mark when it comes to community consultation and engagement. I have some ideas how things could be improved, but I'd be interested to receive your ideas and suggestions as to how the police can get more local people to come along to these meetings. These meetings genuinely do determine the focus of activity for the SNTs, so local residents have every reason to get involved.
Labels: policing and crime
posted by Stuart King at
08:40
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