The quarterly meeting of the Herne Hill & Loughborough Junction ward Safer Neighbourhood Panel, between local Lambeth councillors, community representatives and the local police, was held on 5 September. PC Lamin Keita and PCSO Mo Kanneh attended for the police. Local councillors Deepak Sardiwal and Paul Valentine were present.
The main item was an update by the police representatives on crime statistics and prevention in our ward over the last three months (June – August). There were no dramatic surprises but the following is a summary.
Theft & Vehicle Theft
- Bicycle theft showed 13 recorded instances (up by three), the hotspots being the bicycle parking areas close to Brockwell Lido and outside Herne Hill Train Station.
- Theft of and from motor vehicles showed nine occurrences, up by four.
- Five shoplifting occurrences – up by five, but the police acknowledged that many instances go unreported, and unrecorded except possibly by the retailers concerned.
- Theft from persons showed 28 occurrences, well down on the previous period (which had included the start of the Brockwell Park festivals). Most thefts from persons related to mobile phone snatch thefts and the recorded hotspots were in and around Brockwell Park, at bus stops, and in Ruskin Park. The police were well aware of the surge of snatch thefts in Ruskin Park but there is of course a limit to what they can do to catch the perpetrators.
Violence Against Women & Girls
This is counted as any crime where there is a female victim, though not including mobile phone snatching. It is quite high in our ward, showing 21 incidents in the reporting period – a major priority concern for the police.
Drug-trafficking and possession and Anti-Social Behaviour
Slightly down. ‘Possession’ comes from drugs found on stop and search – drug using and taking is not normally recorded. Drug dealing on a minor scale often leads to behaviour that is categorised as antisocial behaviour (ASB) and is regularly recorded in the parks, and in and around some of the residential buildings in Herne Hill, including Meath House and the two tall blocks of flats near the station, as well as Oborne Close, which is that post-war block of bungalows on Milkwood Road close to the station. The police have upped their regular patrols, including plainclothes patrols, around Herne Hill station (including Oborne Close) and around the centre of Loughborough Junction. They also maintain a frequent offender list. They are aware of some of the violent episodes that occurred in Station Square, provoked by the usual suspects.
Police numbers
The police representatives admitted to being badly stretched. PCs are being used at football matches, demonstrations and Notting Hill Carnival, impacting community policing locally. Recruitment is difficult. One of their constables has had to be moved to a different ward, and numbers generally are declining when they should be steady or even rising.
Although they did not speak to this, we know about all the work-related factors that are driving early resignations in the police: a PC at point 5 on the pay scale gets £37k for early lates and nights. A TfL train driver gets double that at £73k plus extra for weekends with no night work. The train companies like recruiting ex police.
Communications with the community
Met Engage is a new communications platform that allows individual residents to engage on a local level with the police. It is not intended to be a platform for reporting crime, but rather for recording local residents’ concerns, to shape policing in the area and give us direct access to key information and advice. We are all encouraged to sign up for it: https://www.metengage.co.uk
In addition, https://www.met.police.uk/area/your-area/ allows us to put in your postcode and find the crime statistics for our area. It’s still a bit clunky but still an improvement in communications.