Helping the rough sleepers

Tags

2018, Streetlink

Please download the street-link app to help those unortunately members of our community who sleep outside.

Step 1. See a rough sleeper Step 2. Open the Streetlink App Step 3. Enter rough sleepers details Step 4. A professional will attend that rough sleeper

Advertisements

Police numbers matter

Tags

2018

Just read this very disturbing article about an officer being attacked with a knife outside of Ilford station, also on MSN.

There is generally also an increase in violent crime, especially knife crime.

We used to have a stop-and-search scrutiny panel in East London, I used to sit on it and we met regularly to scrutinise stop and search data and analyse it. There were local officers and a representative of County Hall on the panel.

Then suddenly the panel was stopped and ‘stop and search; also greatly reduced.

The stop and search police officers used to put a bit of fear into the reckless people on the streets who frankly need respect.

If that is not present they just wildly go around attacking officers and other people. An article was published of 2 female officers being attacked also.

When we had greater officer numbers, they came out in force to inspect localities and the dangerous elements would not dare go near them but when there are single police officers manning spots, then some think it is easy to attack them.

There is little to say but to demand higher number of officers deployment and I think all Neighbourhood watch panels and groups should put in motion a ;petition to present that to the government.

Ken Marsh, from the Metropolitan Police Federation called a breakdown in society concerning.

 

The latest statistics

Tags

2018

On today’s BBC online there is an interesting article relating to policing and keeping our communities safe.

The Home Affairs Committee is reported to have said that

“While recorded crime is up by nearly a third in three years, charges or summons have fallen by 26% and the number of arrests is also down, according to the findings of the 18-month inquiry.

Data gathered by the committee suggested forces have lost at least a fifth of their neighbourhood policing capacity on average since 2010.

Highlighting the role of neighbourhood teams in tackling terrorism and gang crime, the report said local links were particularly important in communities where distrust of the police was high.”

Whilst I quote:

“The home secretary has already been clear that he will prioritize funding for the police,” he said.

The department added that the government had delivered a £460m increase in overall police funding in 2018/19, including increasing funding for local policing through council tax.”

Our local Safer Neighbourhoods Team officer cheerfully posts reports about his ward walks on Twitter.

However local residents do complain about problems in the neighbourhoods at local meetings. I refer to my last post on a meeting involving the Mayor of Tower Hamlets John Biggs.

I think policing should not become a political hardball, as it seems whoever is on the government gets accused of underfunding.

 

Merger of Hackney and Tower Hamlets

Tags

2018, CE-CU, CEN, CES

As part of ongoing restructuring of the Metropolitan Police Service, Tower Hamlets Borough Police has joined with Hackney Borough Police on the 3^rd October 2018 to form Central East Command Unit (CE-CU)

Hackney will be known as Central East North (CEN) and Tower Hamlets will be known as Central East South (CES)

This will not affect the service you receive from Central East South. This may bring a better working partnership with our colleagues North of the border in Drug related ASB that crosses into Bethnal Green and adjacent Wards.

Contacting the Police will be the same through 999 if an emergency, 101.

Joint SNT panel meeting

Tags

2018, SNT, SNT panel

The date when the London Borough of Hackney and Tower Hamlets formally joined in a common policing administration, incidentally also was a date of a multi-SNT panel meeting at the Glasshouse. The three wards of Bethnal Green, St. Peters and Weavers were represented. A further meeting is planned in 3 months time.

The meeting was very well attended and the hall was filled to the brim. In attendance were non other than Mayor of Tower Hamlets John Biggs and our local councillor and Deputy Mayor Sirajul Islam, Cllr Eve McQuillan, Cllr. John Pierce, Cllr. Asma Islam with support from London Assembly member Unmesh Desai. Further representatives of the Bethnal Green local SNT team were present as well as officers from Tower Hamlets social housing providers.

The discussion ranged around budget pressures for the police, Anti-social behaviour and what can be done about it.

The minutes of the meeting were sent to the representatives of  Residents Associations and representatives if anyone has an interest in seeing them.

There is a strong desire to rid the borough of drug dealing and related crimes, which is often expressed in gang related activity, also rough sleeping is attributed to drug related behaviour.

The main emphasis conveyed to the general public was collect evidence, forward it to Tower Hamlets Homes ASB team, your local SNT team or 101. Of course when a crime is in process always call 999.

So far, through “Operation Continuum” which was carried out in waves of house searches throughout the borough, 160 people have been arrested and around 60 have been given jail sentences.

I would recommend such joint panel meeetings throughout the borough to extent the sharing of knowledge.

 

Free women’s self-defence classes

Tags

2018, self-defence

Free Women’s Self Defence Classes

Photo by Gratisography on Pexels.com

In 2017 Faith Regen Foundation partnered with the Council and the Maryam Centre to deliver free self-defence classes to any woman who wants to improve their awareness of personal safety both at home and on the streets.

As well as learning to protect against physical attacks students are also introduced to fear management and confidence building techniques. The classes also raise awareness of Domestic Violence (DV) and other Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strands, students are given information on local support services where they can access confidential help including FRF’s women’s project.

The 6 hour self-defence course is delivered over 2 weeks, in the Maryam Centre the East London Mosque’s women only building (please note, the course is open to anyone who identifies as female, irrespective of faith). Courses run every three months until the summer of 2019, to find out more please email Julia@thefrf.org  or call 0207 650 3043

Homelessness Strategy 2018 – 2023

Tags

2018

Homelessness and especially manifested and prolonged homelessness has a big impact on our borough and the quality of life for everybody in the borough.

It has emerged that some homeless groups now start to wear high-viz vests and look like officials of some sort and congregate around certain areas with aggressive begging becoming concerning.

Tower Hamlets Council currently holds a consultation on the forthcoming strategy to tackle the issue. A decision is due by 28. November 2018.

Consultation via the

• homelessness Partnership Board
• Mail out and presentation through the Tower Hamlets Housing Forum
• Workshops with residents
• online consultation with the general public, draft document and survey
• internal Briefings

An Equality Impact Assessment is due by 17. September 2018

Any additional information can be obtained through mark.baigent@towerhamlets.gov.uk

I strongly recommend that all residents take part on the online consultation once available.

 

Section 60 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994

Tags

2018, Section 60

As of 5pm today (Monday 23rd July 2018) and until 7am tomorrow (Tuesday 24th July 2018) Commander Connors has authorised the use of section 60 powers in the area covered by the attached map.

This power means that police officer in uniform can stop any person or any vehicle and search that person and/or vehicle for offensive weapons. The grounds for the search can simply be that the person is within the given area within the stated times.
This is due to several instances of serious violence that occurred over the weekend in this area and is a police power that can be used to prevent further violence occuring.
Residents are reminded to call 999 if they see a crime happening or believe that violence is iminent.
Remember – the information received from you is vital to the work that we do. Help keep yourselves, your families and your communities safe by reporting anything suspicious to the police.

Only 9% of crimes, suspects get charged

The statistics of crime resolutions looks bleak. Looking at the latest overview published on the BBC website, only 9 % of crimes actually achieve chargeable suspects.

The rest get dropped, fall under the table and remain forgotten.

This is very encouraging for criminals. Especially areas like Tower Hamlets, who have lots of housing blocks but little CCTV, are hard to police.

In my experience CCTV gets installed where there is money to be made from traffic offences. Many housing estates are not covered.

Within England and Wales 48% of all cases got closed because no suspect could be identified and the number of homicides has increased for the fourth year running.

• Only 3% of rape cases resulted in a suspect being charged.
• 75% of theft cases closed without a suspect being identified.
• 57% of robberies and muggings were closed without charge.

This falls within the latest year where a further decline in police officer numbers took place.

Between January and March 2018 there were 46 homocides in England and Wales both from gunshots and mainly stabbings.

I think it is the responsibility of Neighbourhood Watches to hold the Police and Crime Commissioner to account.

 

 

Reporting crime and ASB

Tags

2018

Please see attached file CRIME_ASB_REPORTING for details how to report Anti-social behaviour and crime.