TURN BACK ON THOSE CCTV CAMERAS NOW!

Dear Dame,








Where there's graffiti there's crime: the two go together. 
That has been the experience in New York. 
The Mayor's Policing Adviser found that when you had a Zero Tolerance attitude to graffiti there was a clear drop in street crime.





There has been a spate of graffiti in recent weeks in my neighbourhood

There are often groups of young people hanging around both ends of the mews where I live late at night and I notice that the council are not replacing lights and there are no cameras. 

I feel that this may lead to increased opportunistic petty crime, certainly, there has been a rise in the number of vehicles that have smashed window screens.

An immediate deterrent may be to post signage about fines for committing graffiti in the same way there are signs about not allowing dogs to foul the footpath. I wonder even if there is a local bylaw about this?  

But also, and as a priority, there needs to be a scheme for CCTV in vulnerable areas. When my own car was broken into recently by the Royal Albert Hall, it was parked outside a property belonging to the Royal College of Music under 
what I assumed was a working camera. 

When I spoke to the local caretakers and residents after my car was broken into they told me that there were break ins there every week because the Council had turned off the CCTV, something that the criminals are clearly aware of.

A friend had his car broken into by the Fulham road cinema and ironically he was able to track the thieves with each of their attempted uses of a stolen credit card
as they used if for contactless purchases....

I also saw a pair on a moped off Kensington High Street break into a car and steal a bag, I chased them but by the time they reached the high street they disappeared into the
traffic. This is not a large geographical area - surely there could be an intelligent CCTV system installed in key locations.

Sincerely ,

anon