Wat Is Community Policing

Policing resources to be stretched across the borough

A MOBILE police squad will be set up to tackle anti-social behaviour borough-wide in an attempt to make resources stretch further.

Police chiefs are having to make changes to community policing as a result of the Metropolitan Police Authority's plans to cut 150 sergeants from safer neighbourhoods teams (SNTs) London-wide and reassign them to other teams - plans which are expected to be agreed on Thursday.

This would result in Harrow losing five sergeants from SNTs by September, but Chief Inspector Nick Davies, responsible for community policing and partnerships in Harrow, said the borough will create a 'problem-solving team' to cope with these changes.

He said: "We will take one person from every ward on a fort-nightly basis and task them around anti-social behaviour and crime and this will enable us to make a substantial impact on areas that have a problem.

"Their assignment will be based on crime and anti-social behaviour numbers and events such as religious festivals, and we will have an oversight on this with a community board, like an SNT ward panel."

Officers would not be borrowed from either Wealdstone or Marlborough ward if they were having difficulties or wards which only have two PCSOs, Mr Davies said.

He added: "We are going to pair some wards to save on sergeants.

"They are not losing their jobs and will be reassigned elsewhere in the Metropolitan Police Service and we will make the savings through the natural process of moving on."

Pinner and Pinner South will share a single sergeant, as will Kenton East and Kenton West, Headstone North and Headstone South, Hatch End and Harrow Weald, and Rayners Lane and West Harrow.

Chief Insp Davies said Pinner South had a PC working as an acting Sergeant who would revert back to his normal rank while a second sergeant was leaving, leaving 19 sergeants reapplying for 16 jobs.

But some residents are not convinced by the changes.

Vivien Tyler, 71, of High Road, Harrow Weald, contacted the Observer to say: "I'm disgusted we are going to cut back on our SNT officers.

"It is bad enough now, and reading this makes me a little more frightened.

"I don't venture out on the High Road after 4pm for fear of my own safety.

Trenton Times endorses our Community Policing Model | Stand By Tony

This is the time to reflect on the road our nation traveled to guarantee the freedoms we now enjoy. We truly know that the price of freedom is not free at all. In fact, it is a road paved with the blood, sweat, and tears of men and women who put the needs of country before self. The denial of self for the greater good is a most virtuous characteristic. The future of our City requires the same kind of commitment as exhibited in our men and women in uniform. -Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day - Mayor Tony Mack

Taking a simple and straightforward approach, members of the Trenton Police Department are going door to door in parts of the city to know better the community they protect.

Last week, police and firefighters were out in force, talking to residents, surveying potential problems and providing immediate solutions as simple as batteries for smoke detectors in a West Hanover Street neighborhood.

Along with workers from other city agencies, police are leading a summer-long program to address quality of life issues across Trenton, as The Times’ Alex Zdan reported last week. “Directed Neighborhood Patrols” deploy community affairs detective s on the street to gather feedback from residents on the needs of the neighborhood. Police then pass the concerns on to representatives from housing, inspections and public works departments and the fire department for quick action.

It’s a proactive approach to taming troubles before they erupt into crisis. Unfortunately, those crises are the times when the paths of police and residents are most likely to intersect, instilling fear and trepidation at the sight of police cruisers. That was exactly the reaction of a West Hanover Street resident rounding the corner to see the panoply of police and fire equipment last week. He told Zdan he thought something terrible had happened, a shooting or a fatal fire.

Becoming a regular — and attentive — presence in the neighborhoods brings police into regular and reassuring contact with the city’s residents. It demonstrates that law-enforcement officials are not adversaries, but partners in the effort to improve the city by making the neighborhoods safer places.

But the issues police have detected in their patrols extend well beyond criminal activity. One of the situations Zdan reported involved a woman whose home was thick with the smell of cats. The feral animals filled the vacant building next to her home, and she had no control over the migrating stench. In official hands, the problem was quickly addressed.

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