POLICE HOST NEW MET FOR LONDON EVENT IN TEDDINGTON
Senior representatives of the local Richmond Borough Police including their Teddington-based colleagues hosted a special event at Normansfield Theatre at the Langdon Centre in Teddington today (thursday) to outline their vision for a New Met for London which focuses on three key areas, More Trust, Less Crime and High Standards.
About eighty people attended the two hour session split into discussions groups to help encourage them to raise their main concerns and feedback to the Borough Police team led by Superintendent Chris Scammell and Chief Inspector Paul James as well as the dedicated Teddington team and other Borough officers.
Earlier this week the new Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the police needed to ‘restore trust’ and Supt Scammell acknowledged that ‘more trust’ was the ‘hard piece’ because of the recent headline-making behaviour of a small number of police officers.
Despite local concerns over the levels of crime Supt. Scammell emphasised that there had been a significant 25% drop in local burglaries, robberies and the theft of cars.
He also had an important message for local retailers in High Street and Broad Street who had expressed specific concerns about an increase in shoplifting, burglaries and vandalism relating to a premises in Teddington being used as a probation hostel.
The police said that arrests had been made ‘in relation to the premises and to criminal activity in Teddington’ and charges made which would result in future court proceedings. The police had also sought reassurances about the backgrounds of those staying at the hostel.
The audience was asked to offer feedback and views on three questions:
- What do you see as the biggest barrier to you reporting something to the Met?
- How has/would interacting with the Met (as a victim or witness) make you feel?
- What is the most impactful change that the Met could seek to carry out to improve in these areas?
The attendees offered robust feedback on all three areas ranging from; trust in the Police; lack of action or response to calls, fear of reprisals from those committing crimes; confusion or uncertainty about best routes to alert police (999 for emergencies or 101 for non-emergencies) nervousness about being involved in a police matter and believing contacting the police was a ‘waste of time.’
Concern over the closure of the local police station in Park Road and lack of police visibility in Teddington were also raised as well as the ‘fear’ of repercussions after reporting a crime.
Supt. Scammell said: “So many closures of police stations break my heart.” And he revealed that the sale of the police station in Teddington had been ‘paused’ and that discussions were being held about the possibility of the Neighbourhood Police team being based there.
Another person in the audience expressed their frustration after visiting Kingston Police station to find ‘no-one was there, just a glass panel’ so they left and another described the response of the Police as ‘poor’ when efforts were made to help the police but ‘very positive’ when a ‘serious’ crime was reported.
One of the hottest topics raised was shoplifting, which local retailers have become massively concerned about with reports of ‘systematic and organised shoplifting’ by gangs targeting several retailers including charity shops.
Supt Scammell conceded the police ‘did not have the capacity to tackle every shoplifter’ but they had a policy of ‘targeting the persistent individuals and those involved in organised criminality.’
The police chief also accepted criticism over the lack of communication in cases where someone had been arrested or charged and had been dealt with but the process had not been openly shared with the wider community.
“Our communications is our Achilles heel and we need to do better,” he said.
Asked by a younger member of the audience about the issue of younger people trusting the police, Supt Scammell acknowledged: “Confident and trust in police amongst younger people is something we need to look at and better training is required.”
The New Met in London is a strategy across the whole of London and pledges: “We are clear that our mission is to deliver More Trust, Less Crime and High Standards.”
It adds: “We’re building A New Met for London where communities know their local officers, help to shape their policing priorities, and work with them to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour and when victims call us for help, they’re satisfied with our response.
“You’ll see the people who fall short of our high standards being dealt with swiftly and robustly. You’ll see officers, staff and volunteers that are well-trained, equipped and led.”
The plan also includes the recruiting of an extra 500 Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) improving the 999 service so calls are answered more quickly, using data better to understand the demands they face and deploy officers where they will make the biggest difference to communities.
