| Chiswick sees increase in street crime offences | |||||
Inspector Dave Osbourne explains how Chiswick Police are tackling the situation
There has been some concern over street crime ‘muggings' in Chiswick over recent months. In common with London as a whole, the borough has seen an increase in street crime offences in 2006/7 compared to the first 6 months of 2005/6. In Chiswick, this period has seen an increase of 6.9% which in real terms means 7 more offences than last year. Street crime, particularly where violence or the threat of violence forms part of the offence, is treated extremely seriously by the police. Witness appeal boards, house to house enquiries and crime prevention signs have been used in Chiswick as the borough Robbery Squad and Safer Neighbourhoods Teams have made a concerted attempt to combat and prevent these crimes and arrests have been made. Covert and overt CCTV cameras have been deployed in crime hotspots and PCSOs have been patrolling school routes on cycles. The Met-wide operation ‘Safer Streets' has been extended which will mean more officers on the streets, both in uniform and plain clothes. Agreement has now been reached with Fullers Brewery to install CCTV cameras at the Chiswick Lane and Hogarth Roundabout subways under the A4. A program of CCTV installations has also begun in the High Road with cameras being installed at the junctions with Devonshire Road , and in the next few weeks, Essex Place Square. Turnham Green Terrace and Prospect Place junctions will also have cameras installed. I intend to extend CCTV coverage as and when I can secure more funding and am always interested to hear from local businesses who are interested in sponsoring this kind of initiative. Whilst there has been a small increase in street crime over the past 6 months, this should be considered against a background of significant reductions over the previous two years. Chiswick Police are committed to making Chiswick safer and I ask that the public continue to be vigilant and follow good advice in paying attention to your surroundings when using a mobile phone, registering mobile phones and MP3 players on the www.immobilise.com website and reporting any suspicious behaviour to police. Inspector Dave Osbourne Other Chiswick crime figures for the first half of 2006/7:
October 13, 2006
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