Showing posts with label Police. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Police. Show all posts

11 March 2018

Local Police Patrols on Twitter

Forest Hill, Perry Vale and Crofton Park Safer Neighbourhoods Teams are our local police teams, reporting to Sergeant John Biddle.

As well as working hard to keep our streets safe, they provide regular updates on Twitter (@MPSPerryVale, @MPSForestHill, and @MPSCroftonPark) and on the local forum — SE23.life.

Regrettably, the police have recently reported a rise in house burglaries, thefts of mopeds and thefts of items from vehicles in the SE23 area. Nevertheless, some successes have been achieved in arresting suspected burglars in the local area, as well as dealing with drugs offenses and anti-social behaviour, and working with residents on crime prevention.

At present all three teams are based at Catford Hill police station, but the Metropolitan Police have plans to close this station (as well as the main Catford police station) and deploy officers elsewhere. The current thinking is that the Perry Vale, Forest Hill and Sydenham teams will be relocated to Newlands Park, just inside Bromley Borough, with the Crofton Park team either joining them or being relocated to Lewisham or elsewhere in the borough.

Each ward has a Safer Neighbourhoods Panel that includes representatives from local neighbourhood watch groups, residents’ associations, civic societies, councillors and traders. These panels help set the priorities for the police in their local areas, so that the concerns of residents can be dealt with.

01 December 2014

Police Safer Neighbourhoods Team email updates

Forest Hill police provide updates and crime alerts to residents registered with them. To register please fill out this form and send it to ForestHill.snt@met.police.uk 


Below is the text from the most recent update:
I am writing to inform you of a recent spate of Burglaries and motor vehicle related offences that have occurred within the Forest Hill area of Lewisham. Could I ask that you as a homeowner or business person within Forest Hill be ever vigilant as we approach Christmas.
If you are a home owner, could you ensure that expensive Items such as lap  top computers or tablets are not left in view of windows when you leave the home . Could you also ensure all windows and doors are locked if they have these fitted. Also make sure you set your alarm if you have one. As we near Christmas, please be mindful of leaving presents on display in windows as well.


If you are a business person, make sure again, all items of value or keys are not left on display or easily within reach if you leave the counter or shop front.
If you own a car, please when leaving it unattended, remove all items from within the car such as bags, phones and in particular sat nav or phone cradles. On this point, if you do remove the cradle, please rub the remaining sucker ring mark from the glass as well. We have also had a number of registration plates removed from vehicles.
I do not wish to alarm you, but more to make you all aware that these types of offences are occurring within Forest Hill as they generally do on the run up to Christmas period.
If you wish to speak to me regarding this or any other matter, or should you wish to have your home security reviewed for free or wish to receive a free property marking pen, please, do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely, Michael Hill PC 195PL
Michael Hill PC 195PL (DWPC)
Forest Hill Safer Neighbourhood's Team A
Phone Number; 020 - 8721 - 2723

01 March 2013

Sydenham Police Station—Potential Closure

The Mayor of London Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) has been consulting over changes to policing across London. There are two issues that will impact policing in Forest Hill.

The Metropolitan Police have been told to make cuts of 20% to costs, whilst at the same time cutting crime by 20% and increasing public confidence in the police. A challenge for any organisation, but MOPAC believe they have a plan that will do exactly that.

The first aspect is a reduction in their property portfolio by reducing the number of buildings and concentrating their activities in fewer properties. Part of this includes the sale of New Scotland Yard, but no part of London is untouched by this sell-off of property. They propose to reduce the number of front counters across all of London, with each borough (except Westminster) having only one 24 police station open to the public, there are also proposals to close most other front counters across all of London. The main reason for this is that front counters are no longer the first point of contact between the public and the police, with much more done by phone, email, or at people’s homes.

In Lewisham the  proposals are to keep Lewisham police station as a 24 hour front counter, with daytime only front counters in Deptford and Catford. Two other police stations would be closed in Brockley and Sydenham. In addition East Dulwich police station would also be closed as part of the plans in Southwark.

Chief Inspector Stuart Bell spoke to the Forest Hill ward assembly at the beginning of February about these plans and made it clear that Lewisham police force favours the retention of Sydenham police station as a front counter. It is currently used as a base of operations by safer neighbourhoods teams in three wards; Forest Hill, Perry Vale, and Sydenham. There is a suggestion that Sydenham police station could be closed and a front counter open in a police building located on Catford Hill, on the edge of Perry Vale ward. This would provide some local facilities for the police and would avoid the cost of building works required to keep Sydenham police station maintained to a decent standard, but it is not as well located for the three wards it would serve. Other discussions are taking place about sharing facilities with other emergency services, most notably the fire brigade which could possibly be able to accommodate a police front counter. But all these alternatives are in the early days of being investigated.

The Forest Hill Society believes that keeping Sydenham police station open is in the interests of the local community and will help to keep them anchored in the area. 

Beyond the physical location of police stations is another important change to policing. There are plans to increase the number of police officers across the Metropolitan police while reducing the number of senior ranks. In Lewisham the proposal is to increase the number of police officers from 593 in October 2011 to 647 by 2015, a 10% increase in the number of officers.

One important difference to the current structure would be the spread of safer neighbourhoods teams. At present most wards have one sergeant, two-three PCs and three Community Support Officers (PCSO). This would be reduced to one PC and two PCSOs, with a sergeant overseeing multiple wards. However, there would be a significant increase in the total number of police officers in the safer neighbourhoods team, to respond across the borough where the most crimes need to be tackled. The proposals are to increase the number of police in the safer neighbourhoods teams from 53 to 162. Chief Inspector Stuart Bell is one of the few officers who has experienced the restructured safer neighbourhoods teams in action, when he was based in Lambeth, and his opinion was that the new structure would provide greater flexibility and improve community relations.

12 March 2012

Future of Police

Doubts have been raised by the Safer Neighbourhood Ward Panel about the future of Sydenham Police Station on Dartmouth Road. The Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (which took over from the MPA in January) are reviewing the entire property portfolio as part of a London-wide review of Police station provision.

The Metropolitan Police (MPS) may want to sell off the building to raise much needed cash and relocate the Forest Hill, Sydenham and Perry Vale Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNT) and the Rapid Response Team to Catford.

The Station may open only Part time to the public, but is home to our SNT. Relocating the SNT to Catford will result in them spending less time policing the very streets they are supposed to protect and is contrary to the idea of local policing. We feel that this is far from ideal and are calling on the MPS to review the situation.

Borough Commander, Detective Chief Supt Burton, will 'neither confirm nor deny' the rumours and will only say that there is a review of Police Stations happening across London that will look at counter provision across Lewisham.

The Forest Hill and the Sydenham Societies held a protest at the Station on 18 February, which was supported by Mayoral candidate Brian Paddick and are calling on their members to sign the petition available in local shops or online at www.ipetitions.com/petition/save-sydenham-police-station/ and email Detective Chief Superintendent Jeremy Burton: Jeremy.burton@met.police.uk

22 February 2012

Elisnore Road Incident - Community Meeting

Meeting on Saturday 25th February 2012 organised by the Metropolitan Police

Following on from the meeting held at St George's Christ Church yesterday in relation to Sunday's (19.02.12) incident where a 25 year old man was shot by police in Elisnore Road another community meeting will be taking place this Saturday (25.02.12).

The purpose of the meeting is for local residents to discuss the incident with the police and to hear directly from them about their concerns.

Senior Officers from Lewisham will be present to take questions
The IPCC have also been invited.

Residents will have the opportunity to ask questions about how the case is being handled.
It will be held at Kilmorie Primary School, Kilmorie Road, London, Lewisham SE23 2SP and will start at 1pm

06 August 2011

Stolen Property in Lewisham

Lewisham police have recovered a number of suspected stolen items of jewellery and are using Flickr.com in an attempt to re-unite the items with their rightful owners.

The Burglary Squad in Lewisham have photographed all of the property including watches, charms, bracelets, necklaces, brooches, rings and earrings and posted them on the Metropolitan Police's Flickr page in the hope that those owners will come forward to identify them. They are also using traditional methods to try and return the missing property, including sending letters out to victims of crime who have reported their jewellery stolen through a robbery or burglary.

It is hoped that the Flickr set entitled "Gold jewellery recovered by Lewisham Burglary Squad" will allow the public to search through pictures of the stolen items to try to identify anything that might belong to them.

If you do believe any of the stolen jewellery could be yours, you are asked to contact PC Aaron Barr during office hours (8am - 4pm) on 020 8284 5040 or alternatively email Aaron.A.Barr@met.police.uk to arrange to view the property at Lewisham Police Station.

Please note:
- You should only get in touch if your property was stolen prior to 4 July 2011
- You may be asked for identification, proof of ownership and be required to make a statement