DIY policing — you need to help us patrol your area, says Met
Londoners urged to walk the beat to battle drug dealers, burglars and bad behaviour
LONDONERS will be asked to help police their neighbourhoods in a bid to “mobilise communities” in the fight against crime.
Scotland Yard is set to roll out a project in which residents walk the beat to combat drug dealers, burglars and antisocial behaviour. The scheme is already running in east London where 27 volunteers regularly patrol.
The Met is consulting communities about expanding the project across London as part of efforts to encourage local people to play a greater part in tackling crime.
Volunteers in east London deny they are acting as vigilantes, saying patrols are “non-confrontational”. The Street Watch project is an extension of Neighbourhood Watch and comes amid rising crime and falling police numbers. Last year, the number of officers in the Met fell below 30,000 for the first time in 15 years.
In Havering, 27 volunteers regularly patrol. Sally Miller, 46, who runs the project, said: “We walk about in high-vis jackets deterring low-level crime and anti-social behaviour. We are not vigilantes, we do not have a go. We don’t go out ‘tooled up’. We just go out with a pocket notebook. If anything were to happen the advice is to get to a place of safety and then call the police.”
She said the group started in 2015 with five members and now has 27 volunteers from the age of 40 to 75. Members come from all walks of life and contribute what time they can spare, usually a few hours a week. The group, funded by local companies and fundraising quiz nights, patrol eight wards and say they have had success in deterring burglars and moving on low-level street drug dealers.
Their best moment was in reuniting two lost children with their parents, Ms Miller said. She added: “The police cannot be everywhere. We live in our neighbourhoods 24 hours a day and can see what is going on. This is just a means of helping police gather intelligence.”
Police insiders say the Met is responding to a surge in public interest in helping to tackle crime. A Met spokeswoman said: “As part of the continuous improvement of neighbourhood policing we scan centrally for areas of best practice and share that across the Met.
“Street Watch is one such practice, and we are assessing what the benefits may be of rolling this scheme out across the Met area. This is a core part of our strategy, mobilising communities to help keep Londoners safe.
“We police London together with our communities and Street Watch is a clear example of that.”
Volunteers are vetted by police.