Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, and Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair today announced that the roll out of dedicated community police teams will be speeded up to ensure every neighbourhood has a full team in place during the next financial year. A safer neighbourhood team puts an extra beat police officer in each ward to tackle anti-social behaviour,graffitti, vandalism, racial abuse, disrespect and petty crimes.

The MPS currently has 285 Safer Neighbourhood teams operating on some wards on every London borough. Today’s announcement means that the remaining 340 wards will initially have teams of four staff in place by the end of April this year and each team will be expanded to six members by April 2007.

Met Commissioner Sir Ian Blair described the accelerated roll-out as ‘the greatest development in community policing London has seen in the past 30 or 40 years and I have no doubt it will have a significant impact on crime and public reassurance.’

The announcement was made during a visit to Camden by Los Angeles Police Department Chief Bill Bratton to see the Met’s community policing programme first hand. The St Pancras and Somers Town team in Camden is one of eight Safer Neighbourhood teams in the borough.

Mayor Ken Livingstone said he was now in a position to guarantee he could submit a budget to the London Assembly which would provide funding to ensure that Safer Neighbourhood teams could be in place across the capital by April next year.

The Mayor said: ‘Today I have confirmed my commitment to ensure every neighbourhood in London has the benefit of a local policing team in their community by the end of the coming financial year, a whole year ahead of schedule. My budget for 2006/7 will provide the funding for dedicated local policing teams throughout the city, increasing the number of teams from the current 285 to a total of 625. With every single extra beat police officer and police team that is being added to London’s neighbourhoods, such as this team in Camden, we are going to reduce the room for crime, disrespect and anti social behaviour.’

‘This team, in Camden, is delivering astonishing results based on visible policing, a success that is being repeated across London. Its vital that if we want to fight crime and anti social behaviour that police services around the world exchange information about their experiences which is why it’s tremendously important that Bill Bratton is here today. London, Los Angeles, New York and other major cities have a great deal to exchange with each other as we tackle crime and anti social behaviour.’

After a guided street tour with members of the Safer Neighbourhood team, Police Chief Bratton said he had noticed how much London has changed over the past 10 years in terms leadership and policing. ‘Community policing embodies what police in London and US cities like New York and Los Angeles want to deliver. It’s been a real opportunity for me to see first hand how it is becoming a reality here in London and I will be taking what I’ve seen back to LA with me.’

Mr Bratton’s visit to Camden culminated at the Hopscotch Asian Women’s in Phoenix Road, NW1, which has established a close relationship with its Safer Neighbourhood team after officers’ successful intervention to deal with racial abuse by a group of youths.

ABOUT SAFER NEIGHBOURHOOD TEAMS

Safer Teams are currently made up of one Police Sergeant, two Police Constables and three Police Community Support Officers. They provide a dedicated service to their neighbourhoods and barring emergency situations (such as terrorism) they are not switched to other duties and can focus on ‘quality of life’ crimes and anti social behaviour such as graffiti and vandalism.

Evaluation of crime and the views of local residents in areas where Safer Neighbourhood teams are operating demonstrate significant impact they are making to people’s lives - they are more satisfied with the way their neighbourhood is policed, more likely to feel that anti-social behaviour and crime levels have improved, worry less about car crime and property safety and are more likely to have seen a visible police presence and feel informed about local police activities.

ABOUT THE HOPSCOTCH ASIAN WOMEN'S CENTRE

The Hopscotch Asian Women’s Centre, established 25 years ago, supports Asian women of all ages in the local community. The staff provide a range of education, training, advice and family support. For further information about the work of the centre contact them on 020 7388 6200.

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