March Update from Police

Drugs, burglary, bike thefts and anti social behaviour

Brentford

BURGLARY
The team conducts regular street briefings and drop-in surgeries to communicate with residents in person on given dates and times. The team deploys in uniform and plain clothes including night patrols to combat burglaries on the sector and we work in partnership with our BOCU Crime Prevention Officers to provide residents extra attention for their home security arrangements.
We send out regular messages update via the neighborhood link. We covered most of the sector during Street a Week initiative and this afforded us opportunity to increase the number of neighbourhoods watch coordinators. All burglary reports are assessed by experienced detectives and supervised by on duty sergeants attending the venues alongside expert scene of crime officers. Victim reassurance visits are completed by the team and vulnerable persons are referred to the Council’s Safeguarding Team if appropriate. We maintain the monitoring of known suspects on our integrated offender management scheme/ database using GPS tracking device.

DRUG DEALING/ USING
The team executes at least two court issued drugs search warrants every week coordinated by our sector intelligence officer. There have been several arrests from these warrants resulting in a major cannabis factory being detected and
closed with three arrested and charged.

Residents are encouraged to liaise with the team concerning drug dealings on the sector. The team also works in partnership with the local authority, Hounslow Homes teams and the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) in executing warrants. Leaflets are distributed in surrounding roads during these operations, raising awareness in the community.

ASB
CCTV cameras are used to combat ASB at known locations. We maintain
regular patrols using predictive statistics at known locations across the sector. The team regularly engages with youths at beginning and end of school as part of an established Operation Protect across the borough. Our BOCU dedicated ASB desk makes initial contact with residents reporting ASB issues prior to the team conducting a follow up reassurance visit or case managing the situation via Airspace, providing regular updates and sharing best practice on the borough and MPS. Advice and support measures are implemented as appropriate to individuals. We work in partnership with other agencies to coordinate achievable targets. We encourage more community involvement/ partnership to improve the quality of life for our residents.
We have seen a decrease in Burglary and drug dealing across Brentford ward.

INSPECTOR DARREN CORNISH’S OVERVIEW:
As we settle in to 2014 and start to look at the performance of both the Borough and Chiswick Sector over the last 12 months there are a lot of positives to reflect on. The Borough has had significant reductions in almost all MOPAC crimes with an overall reduction in MOPAC crimes of 15.3% at time of compiling this report. With regards to Chiswick Sector, figures are compiled on a quarterly basis and the last results available were compiled up to the end of December 2013. They show an overall reduction of 11.6%.
With Burglary and Motor Vehicle Crime being the sector’s main concerns the
results at the end of December showed as follows:
Burglary Residential 30.0% reduction on last year
Burglary Non-Residential 10.5% reduction on last year
Theft From Motor Vehicle 12.5% reduction on last year
Theft of Motor Vehicle 24.8% reduction on last year
I expect to be able to provide end of year results for the sector and wards for the next report in May. My teams are sending out regular Neighbourhood Link and Watch messages. I have reviewed the contents and asked for the messages to be informative, keeping our communities well informed. If you have any suggestions on how to improve the messages, please let us know via the SNT emails on our websites. Ward panels are ongoing with members discussing and guiding their SNT as to what they would like as the Ward priorities.

Recent activity has included the execution of a warrant on a derelict warehouse in Brentford, resulting in the discovery of a cannabis factory and three males on scene were arrested and subsequently charged with production of cannabis offences. Whilst ward SNT’s conduct activity, additional resources have been used and are being used to tackle the issues on our sector, some are visual while others are not so obvious. Three males were recently arrested after a pursuit. They had been seen breaking into a premises and attempted to escape. All three were from outside the Borough and have been charged and in custody for court.

Syon Ward

BURGLARY
Burglary is a personal offence with long term side effects to both the victim and the surrounding community. Syon Ward Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) officers and detectives work together with this crime.

If a burglary takes place, an officer attends and is the first investigating officer, during the initial investigation a sergeant will attend the scene to ensure that every line of initial investigation has been covered, a scene of crime officer will also attend to look for any forensics opportunities and the Serious and Acquisitive Crime Unit (SAC) are informed. Within 48 hours of reporting a home visit, referred to as ‘cocooning’, is made to the victim by the NPT, and basic crime prevention advice is given. The NPT then conduct door to door enquiries, to locate any possible witnesses and to also make other residents aware of what has taken place in the local area and are given crime prevention advice if required/ requested.

Syon NPT take burglary extremely seriously and ensure we regularly patrol in
uniform and plain clothes to prevent burglaries at identified locations with help of the predictive crime analysis, which focuses patrols in the crime hotspot areas reducing the number of offences and reassure the community with a proactive presence. We are actively advising residents to pay extra attention to their home security arrangements. Street briefings and drop in surgeries are performed regularly to communicate with residents in person on selected dates and times. These are advertised on the Syon page on the Metropolitan Police website and leaflets are distributed to the street and local area. Residents are offered to join the Neighbourhood Link, which keeps them informed of local issues via email and are offered information on how to set up or join a local neighbourhood watch.

THEFT OF PEDAL CYCLES
Syon NPT works in partnership with other local agencies to combat this issue.
During February a ‘bike marking event’ was held at West Middlesex Hospital,
along with Transport for London’s Safer Transport Team. Despite the inclement weather 12 push bikes were marked in just under 2 hours and were registered on the bike register website. Riders were given a fluorescent vest, crime prevention advice specifically regarding pedal cycles and were given information on cycling offences and cycle safety advice, to work alongside ‘Operation Safeway’ – a Mayor of London and Metropolitan Police cycle safety initiative. Officers from Syon NPT are proactively stopping cyclists and providing crime prevention advice and checking the frame numbers with crime systems and bike register.

ANTI SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR
Hounslow Borough’s dedicated ASB desk makes initial contact with residents
reporting ASB issues prior to the Syon NPT team conducting a follow up
reassurance visit or case managing the situation via Airspace and providing
regular updates. Advice and support measures are implemented as appropriate to individuals.

We work in partnership with other agencies and coordinate actions to achieve
positive results. CCTV cameras are utilised to combat ASB at known locations.

We maintain regular patrols using predictive statistics at known locations across the ward. We currently do not have any residents on Syon Ward on an ABC but are looking at two individuals for the purposes of addressing reported ASB matters. The team regularly engages with youths at the beginning and end of the school day as part of an established Operation Protect across the borough.

ASB initiatives are ongoing with various agencies working together to disrupt and deter any identified behavior with a controlled drinking zone (CDZ) now
implemented across the borough. Syon NPT encourages more community
involvement/ partnership to improve the quality of life for our residents.

March 20, 2014