Please see following message from A/Chief Inspector Charles

When we met I said I would provide you with a regular updates of things that may be of interest to you. These updates will be from across the borough but some months may be more focussed on one area.

·       After our meeting, I tasked one of the Inspectors to work on a plan to ensure the parks and open spaces were regularly patrolled during the warmer weather. This plan is progressing at pace and the Inspectors have put in a lot of work to ensure our officers are where you are asking them to be; we hope to get an response on extra funding for this, this month. We will also be utilising Special Constables to further boost the resources. This will cover all of Lambeth.

·       A recent operation led by the Waterloo & Southbank ward team, supported by Special Constables, to target the antisocial use of E-Bikes in the area resulted in 2 bikes bring seized and the riders reported for traffic offences. Alongside this, there were several arrests for immigration offences.

·       We have been given funding for this quarter to pay for extra resources to patrol specific ‘micro-beats.’ This is externally funded and so we do not get a say in where these micro-beats are located but we are very pleased to be able to have these visible officers in the areas. These areas cover the following; around the London Eye, Wandsworth Road, Clapham North, Brixton North, and the Gleneagel Road area of Streatham. These deployments have so far resulted in 15 stop and searches 3 arrests for offences such as drugs. 

·       In Streatham, Inspector Troy Simpson continues to have a focus on shoplifting. He has a dedicated shoplifting SPOC who attends meetings with local shops to ensure we are working together, and smarter, to combat shoplifting- that we know is linked to many other offences, including ASB.

·       We recently secured a small budget to allow officers to patrol specifically to prevent Violence against Women and Girls in the Brixton Town Centre area; this was in response to local women telling us they felt unsafe when walking around the area. 

·       In Brixton, we have our two ‘Clear, Hold, Build’ sites, where we have a dedicated team, on top of the local ward teams, to work with the community to make the area less attractive to those who cause our communities harm but committing crime. In April, we executed 6 warrants, resulting in 5 drug-related arrests, and weapons seized. If you would like to know more about Clear, Hold, Build, please see the below link, which details the framework that we are following after its successful pilot in Mersyside; https://www.college.police.uk/support-forces/practices/clear-hold-build-west-yorkshire-police-and-merseyside-police

·       We are currently encouraging the wider use of StreetSafe. This is a platform where you can report where you don’t feel safe but where a crime hasn’t occurred. An example of this could be a dark street where the streetlights don’t work, or an area where overgrown trees are covering the camera. This data allows us to work with the Local Authority to target areas where people ‘feel’ unsafe, as well as areas of high reported crime. https://www.met.police.uk/notices/street-safe/street-safe/?stepid=1&rid=5

·       If you are on Social Media, please do follow us on X; @LambethMPS. We provide regular updates. We are also working towards widening our reach to other social media platforms such as Facebook. There will also be a brand new engagement platform where the police can send ‘alerts’ to all who subscribe, and you can send us replies. I have recently signed up for my local force and must say that it is brilliant, so I am very excited to be able to start using it! The platform is run by ‘Neighbourhood Alert’ and in London, we are using the name ‘Met Engage’. Once this is fully live, I will ensure we promote this at every ward panel.

·       As a result of our last ward panel chairs meeting, myself and Inspector Watson met with Mark from the Travel Guardian app to understand if this is an app we can use in Lambeth to address the issue raised of complexities in the reporting process. I will keep you updated on this.

·       I have requested the Local Authority attend our ward panel chairs meetings going forward to make it easier for you to raise concerns in one meeting.

 Please do come back to me with any questions you have, and if you do not have any questions, I will speak to you in next month’s update.

As always, thank you all so much for everything to continue to do make Lambeth safer. We genuinely do appreciate all of you and the time you give up doing this.

Please reply to this alert with any questions for A/CI Charles and I will forward them.