Sometimes the Dame is so struck by the clarity and sense of a comment she highlights it.
Here is one such. It sets out simply what we have lost in personal security and gained in fear.
"The only time that a serious impact on crime was to be observed was when London and the government took 'sector policing' seriously. This was when police officers were assigned a regular beat and commitments made to keep them in on their patch for a number of years.
That way the police got to know their patch and its residents both good & bad & residents could get to know their own beat officers & genuinely cultivate personal relationships.
It worked. Crime fell & public confidence in venturing onto the streets blossomed.
But of course proper policing is expensive. Despite its success, the scheme was cut back & cut back & then abandoned.
The person most to blame for this was one B Johnson-who allowed the coalition government to cut police budgets & begin the sell-off of police stations.
Today the current Tory Leadership in RBKC is trying to fool the nervous velectorate by campaigning to be allowed to buy the Notting Hill police station at a knockdown price and fill it with all kinds of goodies which will house the homeless; sprinkle glitter on the borough's voluntary services and solve the drug & related crime epidemic.
Policing is not about buildings - it requires long term funding and the gradual rebuilding of sector policing.
The world of 'Dixon of Dock Green' never existed but sector policing was the closest we ever got to it. Johnson's destruction of it whilst London Mayor was one of the greatest of his multiple crimes against the electorate."
Absolutely right...we need police on the streets who know the community. Currently this work according to the oracle mayor has to be done by local people ie reporting everything they see to a central database and then he and the senior met officers who haven't seen frontline work for years decide how many police officers that area will have. It's a total mess for residents and for officers who go into the job to make a difference. Nottinghill Police Station is being sold by this Mayor, whatever the politics of it its on the market. The Borough want to buy it rather than allowing another 'posh' property developer to buy it for another batch of empty flats. It's a community asset and what happens within it should reflect this.
ReplyDeleteIt was the Tory government and Tory London Mayor who cut police numbers by 21,000 and slashed the policing budget so severely that the current ( Labour) Mayor has no alternative but to sell assets for the most money he can raise. RBKC now wants to acquire the old building at a bargain rate- vultures !
ReplyDeleteI frankly don't care which political party did what they did, they are all the same, promise everything and deliver very little...why? Because the country is actually run by a bunch of bureaucrats who melt into the walls and are accountable for nothing. Has anyone tracked the money raised from the sale of these police stations? What has it done? The Council may even have offered the asking price....so what's his problem? If its an asset of community value....then local people should benefit from it.
ReplyDeleteOn the button Dame. "Bobbies on the beat" is the tried and tested method of crime control. Busy body politicians and Councillors unfortunately feel the need to reinvent the wheel - it is a pox that afflicts self important puffers
ReplyDelete7.25 The Council has NOT offered the market price for theNotting Hill Police Station - it wants it on the cheap. Given the last 30 years of 'the marketisation'of everything is it not surprising that a Tory Local Authority is asking for a hand out ?
ReplyDeleteThere are several issues, Mr Khan selling off the SNT team base such as they did with Earl's Court and others despite promising to keep them and moving officers further away
ReplyDeleteThen not enough officers and unless you are classified by the Mayor as an Enhanced Ward your officers can be moved anywhere so often the only cover an area will have is 999 response no foot patrols at all
Then the biggest mistake was to merge Westminster, RBKC and LNHF in to one group of police under one Command Unit that all now parade and are based at Hammersmith police station,
Kensington station may have a 24 hour front desk other than that it is as base for SNT officers to get changed etc
and officers on car patrol come from Hammersmith often have no clue about the ground they cover and stick to the main roads so the dealers and muggers will largely stick to the unpoliced side streets
Lets get back to basics, preventative as opposed to reactive after the event policing, that's if they even turn up , mind you if you are a multi millionaire they usually will