Angela Watkinson

Conservative Party | Upminster

Neighbourhood policing

Mr Speaker, I welcome the significant shift in opinion of the Metropolitan Police over the past 2 years on neighbourhood policing methods.

In 2001, car based policing was still favoured, understandably in some ways, on the grounds that officers could respond more quickly by car than on foot and arrive at the scene of an incident, hopefully while the offender was still there and be able to make an arrest.

Unfortunately, practice did not live up to theory. People said repeatedly that they "never saw a policeman. As I know from personal experience, by going out with my local police on night duty, that meant one car, responding to radio calls, trying to cover the entire length and breadth of the borough, being reactive rather than proactive and arriving at the scene of a disturbance, or a burned out car, too late and when the offenders had made their escape. It was not only frustrating for the police, but infuriating for the victims of those crimes.

Now, there is a particular reason for this happening in the London Borough of Havering, which comprises Upminster, Hornchurch and Romford. For in Romford, there is the largest concentration of night clubs and late night entertainment venues outside the West End of London.

The demands on Havering Police in maintaining order in Central Romford, when an additional 10,000 revellers descend on those clubs nightly, make it a special case that has been unrecognised consistently by the Metropolitan Police in its Resource Allocation Formula.

Quite rightly, the majority of officers on duty are deployed in Romford Town Centre. This is necessary in the interests of public order. But the rest of the borough is left seriously underpoliced. Much of the trouble is not "home grown", as 40% of arrests are of people from outside Havering.

Of course, none of this is secret to the small number of local tearaways who make the lives of the silent law abiding majority a misery. They are free to go about their anti social activities, without the slightest fear of arrest.

Upminster is a very mixed constituency for a London Borough, part very rural, with farms around the boundary, part suburban and part urban. Properties range from modest to palatial, but no one can relax.

It might sound trivial on the grand scale of crime, compared with rape or murder, but to ordinary law abiding residents, having the front garden wall kicked down yet again, having gangs of youths taking drugs in the stairwell of their flats and leaving drug paraphernalia laying around for young children to see in the morning on their way to school, having to endure loud music night after night when they have to rise early for their job as a newsagent or postman, having the wing mirror broken off their car or the side panels scratched with a key , having a lovingly tended garden wrecked and plants uprooted – all have a devastating effect on the quality of their everyday lives.

Worse than that, without a regular police presence, they feel helpless to stop it. Remonstrations with the culprits so often lead to targeted reprisals and householders feel at siege in their own homes.

This is why I welcome the move towards the foot patrols that my constituents have been begging for so long. I am pleased to have the support of my splendid Divisional Commander, Andy Kay. He understands the value of Ward Policing, where officers really know their own patch and the people who live there know them.

That way, local knowledge is built up and regular beat patrols, round the clock, would do much to deter opportunist crimes likely burglary, bogus callers, vandalism, aggressive and intimidating behaviour.

But to achieve this, two things are needed:

Firstly, the police must be released from the overwhelming burden of multiple form filling and bureaucracy that wastes so much of their time and keeps them off the streets fighting crime.

Secondly, a much fairer share of the Metropolitan Police cake must be allocated to Havering, to reflect its real policing needs.

But, even with enough officers to beat patrol over 3 shifts, the reduction of the fear would be short lived if the police do not gain the support of the criminal justice system.

We are all familiar with the unedifying spectacle of offenders walking out of court, smirking triumphantly, because they have received a derisory fine, or have "got away with it" again. It simply saps the effectiveness of the police and the confidence of the law abiding majority. They know that there is no deterrent to repeat offending, nor will there be until sentencing is seen to be just and fair.

Havering is a very long way in police number terms from the neighbourhood policing it wants and deserves.

The increase of 4,000 police officers has not benefited Havering – we are far too low on the list of priorities. An increase of 40,000, which is in fact quite modest when I calculate that Havering would be likely to receive approximately 160 – spread over 3 shifts the effect would not be over generous – that increase is needed to enable Havering Police to reclaim control of the streets.