Forum topic: PG Forum and Crime – Report It!
PG Forum and Crime – Report It!
Karl Brown
22 Feb 2024 15:45 7097
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Tuesday’s PG Forum at the Ruth Winston Centre saw PG Ward Sgt Lamar answering questions and concerns regarding local crime. On the bright side, all the issues raised had already been brought forward by PG community reps at previous crime specific PG Panels (CAPEs) with remedial actions underway. Nonetheless, I think it worth emphasizing some of the issues:
The police are under resourced vs demands and not every crime is going to get the treatment we would like. However, and not least due to CAPE pressure, Sgt Lamar highlighted how he is pulling extra resource into PG from elsewhere. More generally, yesterday, the Met Commissioner explained to the London Assembly that police recruitment figures are not looking great, while last month the ONS highlighted a fall in absolute PCSO numbers to September 2023. As well as such resourcing pressures, Sgt Lamar also pointed out numbers of long serving retirees, or about to be retirees impacting locally. PG CAPE is working in this space.
PG is not Enfield’s crime hot spot: despite being one of the boroughs major centres and with good transport links, we are no more than “mid table” in the boroughs ward crime table.
Without infinite resource there will inevitably be prioritization of police resource. Cllr Taylor emphasised police not turning up should not mean a crime is not reported, for this is not a chicken and egg scenario – reporting builds facts which in turn are used to allocate police resource. Don’t report and there is “no crime” and so less chance of additional resource.
Sgt Lamar explained the importance of also reporting the unusual, giving us the example of a panel van seen on your street a couple of times. Possibly nothing to you, but nonetheless unusual. Met data might tie it to eg car crime in the East End, or Finchley or … as he explained the wide span of such crime groups and the benefit of the Met having such intel.
So, not ideal and things could be better but as our sergeant said, a lot of that is down to us to assist with. Take the time out and report it.
The police are under resourced vs demands and not every crime is going to get the treatment we would like. However, and not least due to CAPE pressure, Sgt Lamar highlighted how he is pulling extra resource into PG from elsewhere. More generally, yesterday, the Met Commissioner explained to the London Assembly that police recruitment figures are not looking great, while last month the ONS highlighted a fall in absolute PCSO numbers to September 2023. As well as such resourcing pressures, Sgt Lamar also pointed out numbers of long serving retirees, or about to be retirees impacting locally. PG CAPE is working in this space.
PG is not Enfield’s crime hot spot: despite being one of the boroughs major centres and with good transport links, we are no more than “mid table” in the boroughs ward crime table.
Without infinite resource there will inevitably be prioritization of police resource. Cllr Taylor emphasised police not turning up should not mean a crime is not reported, for this is not a chicken and egg scenario – reporting builds facts which in turn are used to allocate police resource. Don’t report and there is “no crime” and so less chance of additional resource.
Sgt Lamar explained the importance of also reporting the unusual, giving us the example of a panel van seen on your street a couple of times. Possibly nothing to you, but nonetheless unusual. Met data might tie it to eg car crime in the East End, or Finchley or … as he explained the wide span of such crime groups and the benefit of the Met having such intel.
So, not ideal and things could be better but as our sergeant said, a lot of that is down to us to assist with. Take the time out and report it.
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